IUP Athletic Hall of Fame
Jodi Frederick-Houck started at forward for the most successful IUP women’s basketball team of the 20th century.
She scored points, grabbed rebounds and blocked shots in bunches during the 1998-99 season, when IUP set a school record for victories. Coach Sandy Thomas’ team finished 26-6, captured PSAC West, PSAC tournament and NCAA Division II East Region championships, and advanced to the Elite Eight for the first time in program history. The dream season didn’t end until the national quarterfinals, with a loss to Northern Kentucky.
Frederick-Houck was a force in the paint that year, averaging 11.3 points and 7.6 rebounds per game and leading the Indians, as they were then known, with 54 blocks. She earned All-PSAC West first-team honors and was also selected to the East Region all-tournament team after helping IUP knock off Millersville and Shippensburg to reach the Elite Eight in Pine Bluff, Ark.
Frederick-Houck redshirted after tearing her ACL four games into her senior season. She rehabbed her knee and returned in 2000-01, averaging a career-high 13.2 points per game and adding 42 more blocked shots. Frederick-Houck finished her career with a school-record 186 blocks—she still ranks second, four behind Brittany Robinson, despite last playing 20 years ago—is No. 6 on the all-time rebounds list with 807 and ranks 19th in points with 1,191.
Frederick-Houck excelled academically as well as athletically. She was named a PSAC Scholar-Athlete all four years, was a Provost Scholar multiple years and was named to the Verizon Academic All-America second team in 1999. She graduated from IUP in 2001 with a degree in elementary education and earned master’s degrees from Wilkes University in 2007 (classroom technology) and 2018 (educational leadership).
Frederick-Houck is employed as an assistant principal in the Pequea Valley School District in Lancaster County. She resides in Reading with her husband, Tom Houck, and children Tommy, 15; Chloe, 13; and Robert, 11.
