Ronda Bynum’s road to stardom made a few stops. First, the 5-foot-11 power forward/center was a three-time basketball MVP at Wilson’s Hunt High School. Then, she was a two-year starter at Mount Olive Junior College, where she earned all-tournament acclaim. After taking a year off to weigh whether or not to join the military, she continued her career at Atlantic Christian (now Barton) College.
At AC, she couldn’t have done much more. She was two-time Most Valuable Player for the Lady Bulldogs, two-time all-conference, two-time all-district and two-time NAIA All-American. Her senior season (1987-88), she was named the school’s Kiwanis Female Athlete of the Year.
Along the way, she averaged 17.5 points and 10 rebounds while shooting 55 percent from the floor and 70 percent from the foul line. She scored 1,071 points in just two seasons and snared more than 500 rebounds.
Following her senior season, her No. 23 jersey was retired, and she called that “the ultimate honor.” Twenty-two years later, she has topped even that accolade as an inductee into the Barton College Athletic Hall of Fame.
Bynum was a heralded player at Hunt, where she averaged 17 points and 11 rebounds per game. She credits her ninth grade coach, Robert Pope, for inspiring her to become a basketball force. “After watching me, he said ‘I had skills beyond that’ and pushed me to get better. I had always played basketball, just not for an organized team, and I didn’t start my first nine games.”
Once she got in the lineup, she quickly developed her confidence and skills, and became a dominant prep player. She also starred on the softball team for four seasons. She was a power-hitting left fielder that earned MVP and all-tournament honors.
She started on the MOC basketball team for two seasons from 1983-85 and earned all-tournament accolades. Uncertain about her future, she took some time off after graduating. She was working at Revco stocking shelves one day when Roger Jernigan, then the AC women’s basketball assistant coach, came into the store. Jernigan, who had also played basketball at Mount Olive, asked her to try out.
Bynum played for head coach Mark Tobin and Jernigan as a Lady Bulldog.
In 1986-87, Bynum averaged 16 points and nine rebounds per game while helping AC to its first winning season in three years. She pumped in 450 points, grabbed 250 rebounds and blocked 31 shots. She shot 55 percent from the floor and 68 percent from the foul line.
Her favorite game was on “Senior Night” in 1988. Her mom, Marian Bynum, could not attend, but her father, Willie Lee Bynum, was in the stands, which was significant because she had just learned that he had terminal cancer. She scored 32 points and had 17 rebounds.
Bynum joined Cathy Wall (#13 from 1976-80) as the only females in Barton College history to have their jerseys retired.
Right after college, Bynum joined the U.S. Army and served for “two years, nine months, 29 days, three hours, and 24 minutes” before receiving an Honorable Discharge because of a bone deformity in her feet that required surgery. She said her competitive nature kept her going while she served, and she received the Army Achievement Medal for “exceptional meritorious service while assigned as an equipment records and parts specialist with the 507th Medical Company (Air Ambulance).”
Bynum worked in the Department of Social Services in Wilson for three years and has spent the last 14 years working with children and adults with development disabilities. She has been employed by the Beacon Center since 2007 as a Utilization Management reviewer.
