Frohlich did a number on UNLV record book

Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2003 | 10:09 a.m.

If you turn to the first page of the UNLV part of Linda Frohlich's scrapbook, you'll find there's plenty of room for pressed flowers and torn ticket stubs.

The greatest impact player in Lady Rebels history did not exactly receive an introduction befitting her immense skills on the basketball court.

"Lady Rebels sign German" said a headline over a brief in the May 8, 1998, Las Vegas Sun. Following were three paragraphs that listed Frohlich's credentials, and that she had selected UNLV over New Mexico, Michigan and Washington State.

Three measly paragraphs.

Followed by four years of headlines.

On Wednesday, if she is so inclined, Frohlich will be able to get out her glue pot and add the final page to her UNLV scrapbook, as her No. 13 jersey will be retired tonight at halftime of the Lady Rebels-Cal Poly game at the Thomas & Mack Center preceding the UNLV men's game against Montana.

"I am so happy that UNLV has put me in this position to honor me like this," Frohlich said. "It's definitely a great way to finish up at a great school.

"In Germany, we don't do this kind of stuff. But when I used to walk into the South Gym and see the numbers of Misty Thomas and Pauline Jordan (the only other Lady Rebels to have their jerseys retired) up there, I thought, forgive my English, that must be pretty cool. Now, I am astonished that my No. 13 will be up there where maybe it will motivate other players like theirs did for me."

Hopefully, the Lady Rebels will play well against Cal Poly and won't need their coach to make a lot of adjustments at halftime. Because this is one ceremony Regina Miller doesn't plan to miss.

Frohlich was Miller's first UNLV recruit. That's like setting the bar at Sergei Bubka height in the pole vault.

When Miller was told how the Sun covered Frohlich's signing, she laughed and shared a similar anecdote.

It turns out she had been recruiting Frohlich, a 6-foot-2, 175-pound forward, for several months before she learned her last name.

"For some reason, I thought her last name was "Shohlich" with an 'S' ," Miller said.

"When I first saw her, I saw the potential as a player. But she was always the nicest person. Coming to America helped her toughness. She had to develop in a different environment in a different background with different personnel than what she was used to. That helped her grow so much as a person.

"But as a player, she always had the ability. It was just a matter of bringing it out."

By the time Frohlich was done bringing it out, she was UNLV's all-time leading scorer. Men or women. She totaled 2,355 points during her four years which saw her named Freshman of the Year by both Women's Basketball Journal and the U.S. Basketball Writers Association in 1998 after finishing sixth in the nation with a 23.5 scoring average.

The next two years, she was an an honorable mention All-American before being named to the third team following her senior season. Frohlich was the Mountain West Player of the Year as a sophomore, junior and senior, leading the conference in scoring as a sophomore and a senior and in rebounding her last three seasons.

Even more impressive is that she led the Lady Rebels out the doldrums and back to prominence. In the year before she arrived, UNLV had finished 4-23. In Frohlich's four years, the Lady Rebels never won fewer than 17 games, going 76-41.

Her crowing achievement was leading the Lady Rebels to an NCAA tournament berth during her senior year, the first time UNLV made it to the women's Big Dance in eight years.

On top of all that, Frohlich also put the Lady Rebels back on the local sports radar. Where they had once nearly blipped off the screen, the Lady Rebels attracted six of their eight largest crowds during Frohlich's senior season, topped by a school-record turnout of 4,713 for a big win against New Mexico.

Maybe that's modest by UConn or Tennessee standards but around here it was pretty major stuff. When you add in Frohlich's performance in the classroom -- she was a first team academic All-American as a senior -- and her skills as a Lady Rebels basketball spokesman, it's no wonder her jersey will be hoisted to the rafters.

"Student-athletes like her don't come around very often," Miller said. "It was truly a pleasure to help her develop her basketball skills and achieve her potential at UNLV. Linda was and still is a great ambassador for the Lady Rebels, UNLV and the city of Las Vegas. This is an honor well deserved."

But it's not as if it's going to be the last one. Following her UNLV career, Frohlich was the 26th player selected in he WNBA draft, by the New York Liberty, where she has played in 42 games during her first two seasons.

"Little steps," she says about her improvement as a pro.

And she continues to star in Europe during the WNBA off-season. Frohlich has scored in double figures in 11 of 16 games for Rovareto of Italy in an European women's pro league, with a high game of 32 points.

No bad for a kid from a small farming village of fewer than 2,000 in Northern Germany. Her hometown, Oldendorf, is about an hour and a half drive from Hamburg.

The oldest of five children, Frohlich grew up in an athletic family. Although her mother, Vineta, had played basketball for the Latvian national team, Linda's first experience with a German club team was more or less a disaster.

Playing against older and more talented girls she soon became disenchanted with basketball and quit, taking up other pursuits such as ballet, track and field, volleyball, tennis, judo and jazz dance. She even tried playing the organ.

But when none of those pastimes were able to hold her interest, she decided to give basketball another try. With her father, Georg, the captain of a trading ship, providing inspiration and her mother the genes, Frohlich's skills began to develop. At 17, she joined another club team, SC Rist Wedel, which is where the American college scouts and coaches became aware of her.

Frohlich said it was a tough decision to leave her family behind, but it's hard to imagine she could have made a better college choice than UNLV. Sure, she might have played on national championship teams at UConn or Tennessee. But Geno Auriemma and Pat Summitt weren't interested in the raw-boned frontcourt fraulein.

Miller, on the other hand, was totally interested.

"First of all, I had no idea about American college sports. I was very naive," Frohlich said about what prompted her to choose UNLV. "But one of the reasons UNLV sounded good was when I was 13, I played on a team where we played the Shark (Jerry Tarkanian) defense."

Frohlich said her coach was a big UNLV fan who often wore a Rebels T-shirt during practice.

"They were just four letters to me," she said. "But then Coach Miller came into the picture and said 'Come to UNLV,' and I said, 'Hey, I've heard of that place.'

"I have to thank Coach Miller for giving me the opportunity to come into the program and trusting me from second one. Coach Miller helped me believe in myself. She gave me freedom, but it was controlled freedom. She gave me room to grow up."

Frohlich majored in psychology at UNLV with a minor in marketing, which has served her well in her post Lady Rebels career. Among her many basketball spawned projects is an impressive Internet website (lindafrohlich.com) that is all Linda, all the time.

She has her own fan club and runs two basketball camps, one in Southern California and another in Las Vegas that concluded Sunday. She has written a inspirational book titled "Rising," which can be purchased through her website, along with Linda posters and Linda photos and Linda T-shirts, emblazoned with her new number, 31.

The monthly columns she writes for the Sun are archived on her website, along with dozens of photos, including one showing Frohlich and Liberty teammate and former Colorado State adversary Becky Hammon ringing the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange.

What's next? Well, how about a CD? During her UNLV days, Frohlich developed an interest in religion as well as singing, combining both as a member of the choir at Las Vegas' Missionary Baptist Church.

It's rare that you find a a 6-foot-2 blond, blue-eyed German girl belting out gospel tunes on D Street on Las Vegas' gritty West Side. But no more rare than Linda Frohlich herself.

"She's one of a kind," Miller said.

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