Raised in Nashville and a graduate of Hillsboro High School, Meadors made the decision in the seventh grade that her future was coaching women’s basketball. She attended Middle Tennessee State University and began her career there coaching women’s basketball before it became a varsity sport and prior to Title IX.
In 1970, following the passage of Title IX, she moved to Cookeville to become the women’s head basketball coach at Tennessee Tech University. She coached the Golden Eagles for twenty seasons, compiling a 363-138 lifetime record (.724). While at Tech, she won six consecutive Tennessee state championships, four Ohio Valley Conference championships and two Metro Conference championships.
Twice named Ohio Valley Conference Coach of the Year, she became the first major women’s college coach to win 350 games at one institution. In 1986, Meadors accepted the head coaching position at Florida State University, where she led the program there for ten years.
In 1991, the Seminoles won the Metro Conference Championship and advanced to the second round of the NCAA. In 1997, the first year of the WNBA’s existence, Meadors was hired as general manager and head coach of the Charlotte Sting. She later worked for the Miami Sol and the Washington Mystics. Meadors was hired as head coach and general manager of the Atlanta Dream in 2007.
Two years later she was named WNBA Coach of the Year leading the Dream to a 14-win turnaround, the second best in WNBA history. Meadors, who refers to herself as a “hillbilly at heart” has coached for 35 years, including 11 in the WNBA. She has been inducted into the Tennessee Tech University Sports Hall of Fame and the Ohio Valley Conference Sports Hall of Fame.