#30. Cheryl Burnett

The Ultimate 50

30. Cheryl Burnett

2010 Update

Cheryl has returned to the university where she gained coaching fame -- now known as Missouri State, without the Southwest. Instead of coaching, she's involved in financial development programs. But she still conducts basketball camps for young people. A Springfield TV station attended one in late 2008, and showed Cheryl with short layers and bangs. One layer is above the right eye, clearly long enough to drop down -- but she apparently used some critical curling to keep it in place.

By comparison, we were stunned by this look in a documentary prepared months earlier on the history of "Lady Bear basketball." For some reason, Cheryl appeared with a strip of hair dangling down near the right eye. Such sloppiness is rare for her (compare it with the older photo behind her), and we don't understand why the producers permitted it. Yet as far as we know, the hair never has dropped completely on camera.

The entire one-hour public television program is posted on YouTube. Look for Cheryl beginning at about the 13-minute mark, with plenty of pictures of perfect styles from her coaching career.

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2008 Update

Despite her winning reputation at Southwest Missouri, Burnett was unable to turn around the Michigan program. She "retired" in March 2007, in perhaps a nice alternative to being fired. But her hair apparently remained undefeated to the end. This rather-distant game picture shows what we consider her best length, with hair either tucked back or with the potential of being tucked behind the ears for control.

A timeout on the floor gives us a good look at the other side of the style. There seems to be a bit of layering, to provide a slightly messy-looking yet well-controlled and natural look.

Burnett remains in retirement -- and we wish we knew where, so we could ask her all sorts of hair questions. You can see her in a small measure of action, by ordering a basketball video where she teaches the "scramble defense." Her great defensive approaches to hair control continue to impress us.

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2006 Update

Michigan women's basketball is doing so poorly (0-17 in the Big Ten this past season) that few people apparently are bothering to take pictures of coach Burnett's style nowadays. This presumably current one from a Michigan Sports web site shows a bit shorter look from a couple of years ago -- and even slicked down a bit, for her.

This early 2005 look is shorter still, and an action shot during a game. We're indebted to a basketball blog called She's Got Game for it. The blog author compared Burnett here to theater dance master Bob Fosse. We're not exactly sure why, but the natural curl in Burnett's hair comes to her aid again for style control.

To our knowledge, Burnett's amazing unbeaten run with hair continues -- but we hope things turn around at Michigan quickly, or she may be consigned to basketball videos again.

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2004 Update

After taking a year off from coaching, Burnett returned to college basketball in 2003-04 at Michigan. She came back with a surprising style change -- hair reaching for the neck, as long as we've ever seen it on her. How much longer is this style?

Long enough that she has to tie it back at times for control! (We think this picture was taken after a practice session.) A reliable, solid short head of hair now appears very beatable -- but we must emphasize we have not seen those dangling strands in her eyes. (Note the curl at the ends to keep the strands out.) If anyone has, we'd appreciate hearing from you.

Your best source for current Burnett pictures these days might be the Michigan sports web site -- though when we searched, there didn't seem to be many.

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2002 Update

This coach's hair has adjusted well to changing times and style trends. This photo was taken during the 2001-02 college season, showing a bit softer version of the look on our main page. There's a bit of curl, but not a lot -- but it's still well-sizzled into position. We're not sure the bangs on her left side are long enough to fall, if the spray wears out.

We don't know what Burnett's future holds -- nor does she. She resigned as Southwest Missouri State's coach in April, saying she was "stepping out in faith." We wish her well, and hope her hair remains faithfully in position whatever she does. In the meantime, a big Burnett fan has a web site with pictures of this coach's playbook of hair "sets." (And even a link to us.)

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