Ann Meyers
No. 15 – New Jersey Gems (WBL) | |
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Position | Guard |
Personal information | |
Born | San Diego, California | March 26, 1955
Nationality | USA |
Listed height | 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m) |
Listed weight | 134 lb (61 kg) |
Career information | |
College | UCLA |
NBA draft | 1978: 1st player drafted in the WBL |
Selected by the New Jersey Gems | |
Playing career | 1978–1981 |
Career highlights and awards | |
WBL Co-MVP for the 1979-1980 | |
Medal record | ||
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Women's Basketball | ||
Representing ![]() | ||
USA Women's Pan American Team | ||
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1975 Mexico City | National Team |
Olympic Games | ||
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1976 Montreal | Team Competition |
USA Women’s World University Games Team | ||
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1977 Sofia, Bulgaria | National Team |
World Championship | ||
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1979 Seoul | National Team |
USA Women's Pan American Team | ||
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1979 San Juan | National Team |
Ann Elizabeth Meyers (born March 26, 1955 in San Diego, California) is a retired American basketball player and sportscaster. She is a distinguished figure in the history of women's basketball and sports journalism. A standout player in high school, college, the Olympic Games, international tournaments, and the professional levels, she is one of the most talented women to ever have played the game.
Meyers was the first player to be part of the U.S. national team while still in high school. She was the second woman to be signed to a four-year athletic scholarship for college, at UCLA[1]. She was also the only woman to sign a contract with a National Basketball Association team, the Indiana Pacers (1979).[2]
Meyers currently resides in Huntington Beach, California, and serves as the general manager for the WNBA's Phoenix Mercury and vice president of the NBA's Phoenix Suns. For over 26 years, she served as a network television sports analyst for ESPN, CBS, and NBC. In 2006, Meyers was awarded the Ronald Reagan Media Award from the United States Sports Academy.
Early Life
Drysdale was born on March 26, 1995 to Bob and Patricia Meyers. Her father played Guard for Marquette University, and then the Shooting Stars, a professional team in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She was the sixth of eleven children many of whom were athletic. One brother, Dave, was an All-American at UCLA and went on to play for the Milwaukee Bucks.[3]
Athletic accomplishments
High school
Ann attended Sonora High School in La Habra, California. As an all-around athlete, she competed in softball, badminton, field hockey, and tennis, as well as basketball. She earned thirteen Most Valuable Player awards in high school sports. She led her basketball teams to an 80-5 record. In 1974, Ann became the first high school student to play for the U.S. national team.[3]
College
Ann was a four-year athletic scholarship player for the UCLA Bruins women's basketball team (1976–1979), the first woman to be so honored at any university.[3] In a game against Stephen F. Austin on February 18, 1978, she recorded the first quadruple-double in NCAA Division I basketball history, with 20 points, 14 rebounds, 10 assists and 10 steals.[4][5] Since then, University of Tennessee at Martin junior guard Lester Hudson is the only other Division I basketball player, male or female, to have done so.[4] On March 25, 1978, her UCLA Bruins team was the AIAW national champion: UCLA defeated Maryland, 90–74 at Pauley Pavilion. While at UCLA (1976–1979), she became the first four-time All American women's basketball player. She was the winner of the Honda Sports Award as outstanding women's college basketball player of the year, as well as the Broderick Cup for outstanding woman athlete of the year in 1978.[6] As of 2008, Ann still holds UCLA career records for season steals (125), career steals (403), and career blocked shots (101).[5]
Olympics and World competition
Ann was a member of the US team that won the 1975 Pan American Games Gold medal.[3] She played on the US Olympic basketball team that won a Silver Medal in the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal.[3] That team was led by Billie Moore, her own coach at UCLA. She was on the 1979 US team that won the 1979 FIBA World Championship for Women Gold medal.[3] This was the first time since 1957 that the United States won a World Championship title. She also won silver medals at the 1979 Pan American Games and 1977 World University Games.[3]
Professional
In 1980, Ann made NBA history when she signed a $50,000 no-cut contract with NBA's Indiana Pacers.[3] She participated in three-day tryouts for the team, the first by any woman for the NBA, but eventually was not chosen for the final squad.[7] She became a color analyst for the NBA at a time when there were very few women in sports casting.[2][8] Ann was the first woman player drafted by the Women's Professional Basketball League (WPBL) in 1978 to the New Jersey Gems. Playing for the Gems, Ann was the WPBL Co-MVP for the 1979-1980.[7] She wore jersey #14 for the Gems. She also won TV's Women Superstars competition three consecutive years: 1980, 1981, and 1982. Meyers served as an analyst for NBC Sports coverage of Basketball at the 2008 Summer Olympics.[9]
Honors and Hall of Fame inductions
- Ann received her first Hall of Fame membership in 1985, when she was inducted into the International Women's Sports Hall of Fame in the contemporary category for basketball.
- She was inducted into the UCLA Athletics Hall of Fame in 1988 as the first woman inductee.
- Her #15 basketball jersey was one of the first four retired by UCLA. She was honored on February 3, 1990 in a ceremony in Pauley Pavilion, along with Denise Curry (#12), Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (#33), and Bill Walton (#32). This was the key moment in the "Pauley at 25" celebration of twenty-five years of the arena. The primary criteria for being chosen was that all four players were three-time All-Americans.[5]
- On May 10, 1993, she was enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, located in Springfield, Massachusetts as the first woman inductee.[10]
- In 1994, Ann was the first woman ever to compete in the Celebrity Golf Association Championship.
- On January 31, 1995, she attended a ceremony in the gym of her high school, Sonora High School, in La Habra, California, where her player jersey was officially retired, and hung in display[11]
- She was inducted into the National High School Hall of Fame in 1995.
- In 1999, Meyers received the Mel Greenberg Media Award, presented by the WBCA.[12]
- On June 5, 1999, she was inducted as a charter member of the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame, in Knoxville, Tennessee.[13]
- In 2001, Ann was honored as a Wooden All-Time All-American by the Wooden award.
- She was a 2003 NCAA Silver Anniversary Awards recipient.[14][15] She joins William Naulls (1981), Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (1994), and Bill Walton (1999) as UCLA athletes who have been so honored on the .
- In 2006, Meyers was awarded the Ronald Reagan Media Award from United States Sports Academy
- In 2007, she was enshrined in the FIBA Hall of Fame as part of the inaugural class of 2007. She is 1 of 3 United States citizens, along with male player Bill Russell and coach Dean Smith so honored.
Family
On November 1, 1986, she married former Los Angeles Dodger Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Don Drysdale, and took the name Ann Meyers Drysdale. It was the first time that a married couple were members of their respective sports' Halls of Fame. Meyers and Drysdale had three children together: Don Jr. "D.J." (son), Darren (son), and Drew (daughter).
She was widowed on July 3, 1993 when Don died of a heart attack in Montreal, Canada.
Meyers is the sister of former NBA player Dave Meyers, who also played college basketball at UCLA, under legendary coach John Wooden. He played four seasons for the Milwaukee Bucks after being one of four players traded from the Los Angeles Lakers (who had selected him in the first round of the 1975 NBA Draft) for Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
Broadcasting career
Ann Meyers has been the women's basketball analyst at the Summer Olympics since the NBC's coverage of the 2000 Sydney Olympics for NBC Sports. She had been offered a job to broadcast the Chicago Bulls games in 1983, but she turned it down due to family considerations.[16]
She served as an analyst on ESPN's coverage of the WNBA and previously worked for NBC Sports full-time as its lead WNBA analyst from 1997 to 2002. Meyers also worked "Hoop-It-Up" telecasts in 1994 and 1995. Since 1983, she has served as an ESPN analyst for various events including both men's and women's NCAA basketball games.
She also worked as a color analyst for the Indiana Pacers making her the first woman to do game analysis for the team.
Meyers led the U.S. to a silver medal at the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal as women's basketball made its Olympic debut, and returned eight years later as an announcer for ABC Sports at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. She has since covered a wide variety of sports for major networks in the U.S, including the 1986, 1990 and 1994 Goodwill Games, men's and women's college basketball, and NCAA softball and volleyball.
See also
Notes
- ^ "Interview with Phoenix Mercury GM Ann Meyers Drysdale". Retrieved 2009-07-12.
- ^ a b Mercury Name Ann Meyers Drysdale As General Manager Phoenix Mercury web site, September 12, 2006
- ^ a b c d e f g h Porter p. 120
- ^ a b SKYHAWK JUNIOR MAKES NCAA HISTORY WITH QUADRUPLE-DOUBLE. University of Tennessee at Martin - UT Martin Sports, November 14, 2007 (Quadruple-double history mention)
- ^ a b c UCLA Women's basketball media guide
- ^ "Collegiate Women Sports Awards - Past Winners". American Honda Motor Co. Retrieved 16 April 2010.
- ^ a b Porter, Karra (2006). Mad Seasons: The Story of the First Women's Professional Basketball League, 1978-1981. Bison Books. ISBN 0803287895.
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ignored (help) - ^ Women's Basketball Pioneer Earns USSA Media Award American Sport Museum and Archives, January 13, 2006
- ^ Medium Well: Your NBC Olympics lineup - A blog on sports media, news and networks - baltimoresun.com
- ^ "Hall of Famers". Basketball Hall of Fame. Retrieved 2009-08-01.
- ^ Vencedor, Sonora High School Yearbook, Volume 29. La Habra, California: Jostens. 1995. p. 129.
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ignored (help) - ^ "Winner of the Mel Greenberg Media Award". WBCA. Retrieved 2009-08-02.
- ^ "WBHOF Inductees". WBHOF. Retrieved 2009-08-01.
- ^ 2003 NCAA Silver Anniversary Award Recipients. National Collegiate Athletic Association, November 21, 2002
- ^ NCAA ANNOUNCES SILVER ANNIVERSARY AWARD RECIPIENTS. National Collegiate Athletic Association, November 21, 2002
- ^ Smith, Michelle (7 May 2010). "Ann Meyers Drysdale Epitomizes Working Mothers". AOL Sports. Retrieved 8 May 2010.
References
- David L. Porter, ed. (2005). Basketball: A Biographical Dictionary. Greenwood Press. ISBN 978-0313309526.
External links
Bibliography
- UCLA Bruins Women's basketball media guide (PDF copy available at www.uclabruins.com)
- UCLA Bruins Athletic Hall of Fame Inductees
- Basketball Hall of Fame Profile: Ann Meyers
- FIBA Hall of Fame: Ann Meyers
- Women's Basketball Hall of Fame: Inaugural class of 1999
- WBL Memories: New Jersey Gems
- 1955 births
- Living people
- Shooting guards
- Olympic basketball players of the United States
- Basketball players at the 1976 Summer Olympics
- Olympic silver medalists for the United States
- Basketball Hall of Fame inductees
- FIBA Hall of Fame
- UCLA Bruins women's basketball players
- Women's Basketball Hall of Fame
- People from San Diego, California
- Women sports announcers
- National Basketball Association broadcasters
- University of California, Los Angeles alumni
- College basketball announcers in the United States
- Indiana Pacers