Washington Mystics center Stefanie Dolson has been a prominent figure in women's college basketball for over a decade now. As a standout player at the University of Connecticut, she won two of the school's 11 NCAA championships and played with several other WNBA stars within the program.
When Washington drafted her with the sixth overall pick in the 2014 WNBA Draft, she was a household name to women's basketball fans everywhere. Over time, the nickname ‘Big Mama Stef’ had begun to stick with the 6-foot-5 star.
Speaking with Monumental Sports Network in a Question and Answer session that touched on a variety of topics, Dolson gave the simple reasoning for her nickname. Scroll to the 7:20 mark of this interview to watch.
“What's funny is there actually isn't much of a story. Everyone always asks me that question," Dolson said. ”And it really just came to fruition because I was- naturally I'm, although kids are not my forte, I naturally become a team's kind of mother and I always want the team to hang out. If we want to do a team dinner, I always want to cook for them. I try to make sure that people are always on time. And so I think the team as a whole kind of looked at me as like a mom. And then obviously I'm a large person so I think I just had a friend of mine who was just like, 'I'm just gonna call you Big Mama Stef' and then from there, it took off. So that became every handle I have."
Coming in a time when everyone was looking for that clever social media handle in the early 2010s, it was a natural fit and she never changed it.
Being a team's “mother” fits into the role that the 10-year WNBA veteran wants to bring to Washington this season. Dolson is lined up to be the oldest player on the team's 2024 roster at 32 years old. While she believes she can still contribute at a high level in terms of on-the-floor production, being that steadying force that shows younger players how to get it done could be her biggest impact.