Temple University Athletics
Bigger Than Basketball: Women's Basketball Alum Set for Fight of Her Life
11.10.20 | Women's Basketball
Temple University women's basketball alumna Khadija Bowens has faced many challenges throughout her life, but she has always faced everything with grit, determination and resilience. The game has given her many opportunities and has allowed her to turn around and use her platform through basketball to help others, which is why she lives by the motto "bigger than basketball."
The North Philly product grew up idolizing former Temple women's basketball coach and North Philly native Dawn Staley, repping Staley's number five on every jersey she wore. Eventually, Bowens' hard work would pay off when she received a full athletic scholarship to play for Coach Staley and the Temple Owls in 2001.
However, Bowens would begin to face challenges she never could have expected. After playing in just a handful of games her first two seasons on Broad Street, Bowens was declared academically ineligible at the conclusion of the fall semester her sophomore year. What should have been one semester away from Temple turned into two of the toughest years of her life.
Two months after she was dismissed from school, Bowens' grandmother passed away.
"She was my strength, that was my person, my go-to. So I didn't have the strength anymore and I didn't care at that time to get back into school, so I lost myself and I fell deep into the streets," explained Bowens. "I came back to my neighborhood and I got caught up being around the wrong people and making bad decisions. I ended up getting arrested a couple of times"
About a year later, her cousin was murdered.
"He was the person that took care of my grandma," reflected Bowens. "So I had to make a decision. It was either the streets or basketball. It was really hard. But I had to focus so I ended up going to community college and getting everything right."
When she faced the decision of getting back on the court or making wrong decisions and hanging around the wrong crowds, she knew the next step on her journey would be.
Bowens went to the Community College of Philadelphia where she focused on her academics and achieved much better grades. She also beat all of her legal battles to get her life back on the right track.
Coach Staley held Bowens' scholarship, which allowed her to come back and compete for the Owls her senior season and average 9.7 points and 4.2 rebounds per game. Bowens then graduated Temple with a bachelor's degree in Criminal Justice in 2006.
She went on to work at a group home while volunteering and helping the inner city youth of Philadelphia. Life was going well for the TU grad until April of 2010, when her brother was murdered.
"A couple months before my brother passed, my job had offered me a position in Florida and at first I didn't want to go because my family's here in Philly and everything's good," stated Bowens. "But then when that happened, I had to leave because I knew that nothing good would come out of me staying in North Philly. I was so full of anger and I just needed to get away. So I ended up moving down there a few months after my brother passed away and I stayed there for two years."
While in Florida, Bowens found herself closed off from family and friends, not letting anyone come to visit and keeping to herself. It was a period of time where she needed to be on her own and get away from the pain that was in North Philly.
When she came back to Philadelphia in 2012, she picked up right where she left off. Bowens immediately jumped back into helping the youth of Philly and volunteering in the community. She ended up holding charity basketball games, one to bring awareness to breast cancer and another titled "Stop the Violence" to honor her brother and other homicide victims of the city.
The breast cancer awareness game led Bowens to create the Khadija Bowens Basketball Foundation, where she planned to create an afterschool program through the foundation. However, she wasn't able to fully get the foundation up and running due to the next obstacle that would be thrown her way.
Over the past 15 months, Bowens has been facing a multitude of health issues. She found herself constantly nauseous and vomiting two-to-three times a week. The doctors told her it was gastrointestinal problems, so she began taking medicine for acid reflux and various GI conditions. But nothing seemed to work.
"I had to be persistent because I know my body and I knew it wasn't just GI issues," said Bowens. "Then I noticed there was a lump in my stomach and I couldn't walk for two days so I told myself, 'When I can get up and walk again, I'm going straight to the emergency room.' I ended up going to the ER and I begged them to do a CT scan or an ultrasound. Thankfully they listened to me."
The doctors found a tumor in Bowens' abdomen in August 2020. The tumor unfortunately ruptured before the surgeons were able to remove it, so the doctors then went in to test the fluids in her stomach for the presence of cancer cells.
Bowens was diagnosed with stage one ovarian clear cell carcinoma, a rare form of cancer that only accounts for 20% of ovarian cancers.
Following surgery on August 26, Bowens began chemotherapy treatments that she is still undergoing. She initially didn't want to share with others the battle that she was facing, but Bowens felt compelled to share her journey.
"I had to share it because I felt like this is bigger than me. This journey isn't about just me. I'm glad I shared it though because the love that I have been receiving, I don't think I would be able to make it."
Bowens took to Instagram in October to tell family, friends, and supporters about the fight for her life.
"I found out the same day I think a lot of people did, the day she posted on Instagram," reflected former Temple standout and six-time WNBA All-Star Candice Dupree. "So as a group, we (former TU teammates) have been trying to figure out different ways that we can support her. I told her that every week I'm going to send her a video just to check in and make sure she's doing alright."
Bowens is overwhelmed by the amount of support she has received since sharing her story. High schools, colleges, former teammates, former coaches, semi-pro leagues, and many others have reached out with kind words and well wishes. Her whole life, Bowens has focused on helping others. Now it's time for her to take a step back and allow others to help her.
"My mom said, 'You gotta receive this love because this is from all the seeds that you've been sowing over the years,'" commented Bowens. "And when I thought about it like that, it was like 'You're right mom.' I gotta take this all in and allow people to love on me and care for me right now because I need it. And that's hard for me. But I need the love and support and it's been amazing."
She has overcome so many obstacles throughout her life, which she believes has helped her to be prepared for this fight. Bowens believes this isn't the toughest thing she has faced, so she's more than ready to face cancer head-on.
"When I lost my brother, that's the one thing in my life that crushed me," she said. "It still hurts my heart today. I just feel like nothing can hurt me like that did. And everything that I've been through, it just makes me stronger."
Bowen's attitude is what makes her story so special. She has a positive outlook no matter what is thrown her way and believes that everything happens for a reason. She finds meaning in the tough moments and trusts that she is helping others by facing these struggles.
"I don't want to be strong right now, I really don't. I don't have a choice though. I know that this journey is not just mine. It's not for me. I know that I'm helping someone else. I don't know who, but I feel like through every obstacle I've faced, I was helping someone."
Bowens expressed that everything on her journey has always been bigger than basketball, but basketball was her way to maneuver through life. The desire to get back to the court helped her get back into school and eventually graduate.
She's given back to the community through basketball and now the basketball community is rallying around her. Through everything she has faced, basketball was the foundation that never faltered and allowed Bowens to balance when it felt like the world was crashing down.
"God's got something bigger for me after all this. I don't know what it is or what this journey is about, but I just trust in God."
The North Philly product grew up idolizing former Temple women's basketball coach and North Philly native Dawn Staley, repping Staley's number five on every jersey she wore. Eventually, Bowens' hard work would pay off when she received a full athletic scholarship to play for Coach Staley and the Temple Owls in 2001.
However, Bowens would begin to face challenges she never could have expected. After playing in just a handful of games her first two seasons on Broad Street, Bowens was declared academically ineligible at the conclusion of the fall semester her sophomore year. What should have been one semester away from Temple turned into two of the toughest years of her life.
Two months after she was dismissed from school, Bowens' grandmother passed away.
"She was my strength, that was my person, my go-to. So I didn't have the strength anymore and I didn't care at that time to get back into school, so I lost myself and I fell deep into the streets," explained Bowens. "I came back to my neighborhood and I got caught up being around the wrong people and making bad decisions. I ended up getting arrested a couple of times"
About a year later, her cousin was murdered.
"He was the person that took care of my grandma," reflected Bowens. "So I had to make a decision. It was either the streets or basketball. It was really hard. But I had to focus so I ended up going to community college and getting everything right."
When she faced the decision of getting back on the court or making wrong decisions and hanging around the wrong crowds, she knew the next step on her journey would be.
Bowens went to the Community College of Philadelphia where she focused on her academics and achieved much better grades. She also beat all of her legal battles to get her life back on the right track.
Coach Staley held Bowens' scholarship, which allowed her to come back and compete for the Owls her senior season and average 9.7 points and 4.2 rebounds per game. Bowens then graduated Temple with a bachelor's degree in Criminal Justice in 2006.
She went on to work at a group home while volunteering and helping the inner city youth of Philadelphia. Life was going well for the TU grad until April of 2010, when her brother was murdered.
"A couple months before my brother passed, my job had offered me a position in Florida and at first I didn't want to go because my family's here in Philly and everything's good," stated Bowens. "But then when that happened, I had to leave because I knew that nothing good would come out of me staying in North Philly. I was so full of anger and I just needed to get away. So I ended up moving down there a few months after my brother passed away and I stayed there for two years."
While in Florida, Bowens found herself closed off from family and friends, not letting anyone come to visit and keeping to herself. It was a period of time where she needed to be on her own and get away from the pain that was in North Philly.
When she came back to Philadelphia in 2012, she picked up right where she left off. Bowens immediately jumped back into helping the youth of Philly and volunteering in the community. She ended up holding charity basketball games, one to bring awareness to breast cancer and another titled "Stop the Violence" to honor her brother and other homicide victims of the city.
The breast cancer awareness game led Bowens to create the Khadija Bowens Basketball Foundation, where she planned to create an afterschool program through the foundation. However, she wasn't able to fully get the foundation up and running due to the next obstacle that would be thrown her way.
Over the past 15 months, Bowens has been facing a multitude of health issues. She found herself constantly nauseous and vomiting two-to-three times a week. The doctors told her it was gastrointestinal problems, so she began taking medicine for acid reflux and various GI conditions. But nothing seemed to work.
"I had to be persistent because I know my body and I knew it wasn't just GI issues," said Bowens. "Then I noticed there was a lump in my stomach and I couldn't walk for two days so I told myself, 'When I can get up and walk again, I'm going straight to the emergency room.' I ended up going to the ER and I begged them to do a CT scan or an ultrasound. Thankfully they listened to me."
The doctors found a tumor in Bowens' abdomen in August 2020. The tumor unfortunately ruptured before the surgeons were able to remove it, so the doctors then went in to test the fluids in her stomach for the presence of cancer cells.
Bowens was diagnosed with stage one ovarian clear cell carcinoma, a rare form of cancer that only accounts for 20% of ovarian cancers.
Following surgery on August 26, Bowens began chemotherapy treatments that she is still undergoing. She initially didn't want to share with others the battle that she was facing, but Bowens felt compelled to share her journey.
"I had to share it because I felt like this is bigger than me. This journey isn't about just me. I'm glad I shared it though because the love that I have been receiving, I don't think I would be able to make it."
Bowens took to Instagram in October to tell family, friends, and supporters about the fight for her life.
"I found out the same day I think a lot of people did, the day she posted on Instagram," reflected former Temple standout and six-time WNBA All-Star Candice Dupree. "So as a group, we (former TU teammates) have been trying to figure out different ways that we can support her. I told her that every week I'm going to send her a video just to check in and make sure she's doing alright."
Bowens is overwhelmed by the amount of support she has received since sharing her story. High schools, colleges, former teammates, former coaches, semi-pro leagues, and many others have reached out with kind words and well wishes. Her whole life, Bowens has focused on helping others. Now it's time for her to take a step back and allow others to help her.
"My mom said, 'You gotta receive this love because this is from all the seeds that you've been sowing over the years,'" commented Bowens. "And when I thought about it like that, it was like 'You're right mom.' I gotta take this all in and allow people to love on me and care for me right now because I need it. And that's hard for me. But I need the love and support and it's been amazing."
She has overcome so many obstacles throughout her life, which she believes has helped her to be prepared for this fight. Bowens believes this isn't the toughest thing she has faced, so she's more than ready to face cancer head-on.
"When I lost my brother, that's the one thing in my life that crushed me," she said. "It still hurts my heart today. I just feel like nothing can hurt me like that did. And everything that I've been through, it just makes me stronger."
Bowen's attitude is what makes her story so special. She has a positive outlook no matter what is thrown her way and believes that everything happens for a reason. She finds meaning in the tough moments and trusts that she is helping others by facing these struggles.
"I don't want to be strong right now, I really don't. I don't have a choice though. I know that this journey is not just mine. It's not for me. I know that I'm helping someone else. I don't know who, but I feel like through every obstacle I've faced, I was helping someone."
Bowens expressed that everything on her journey has always been bigger than basketball, but basketball was her way to maneuver through life. The desire to get back to the court helped her get back into school and eventually graduate.
She's given back to the community through basketball and now the basketball community is rallying around her. Through everything she has faced, basketball was the foundation that never faltered and allowed Bowens to balance when it felt like the world was crashing down.
"God's got something bigger for me after all this. I don't know what it is or what this journey is about, but I just trust in God."
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