Ann Meyers Drysdale

Ann Meyers Drysdale is regarded as one of the greatest stars in the history of basketball. Throughout her career, she has received many honors. A member of six Halls of Fame, including the International Women's Sports Hall of Fame and the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, Ann is an Olympic silver medalist, a World Championship gold medalist, and a two-time Pan American Games medalist. A female first in many categories, Ann was the first woman ever signed to a four-year athletic scholarship to UCLA, where she led the women's basketball team to their only National Championship in 1978. To this day, she is the only four-time Bruin basketball All American, male or female. Named by Time magazine as one of the "Top 10 Female Sports Pioneers of All Time" in 2008, Ann is the only woman to sign a contract with an NBA team (the Indiana Pacers in 1979) and the only woman to sign a no-cut contract with the NBA. She was also the first woman ever to do color commentary of an NBA game, as well as the first woman to announce an NBA game on network television. Today Ann continues to break through barriers. She is the only female vice president in the NBA (she is VP of the Phoenix Suns), and she is also the general manager of the WNBA's Phoenix Mercury, which has won two WNBA Championships since she took over four years ago. Ann has worked extensively as a broadcaster as well, covering a wide variety of sports for major television networks, including the 2000, 2004, and 2008 Olympics for NBC.