Athletes

Ann Meyers-Drysdale is a pioneer in women's basketball and has worked as a television sports commentator for the past 27 years. Meyers-Drysdale currently serves as the general manager for the WNBA's Phoenix Mercury and vice president of the NBA's Phoneix Suns. In 2006, Meyers-Drysdale joined a group of legends in sports journalism by winning the United States Sports Academy's Ronald Reagan Media Award. She was also recently selected as one of the Top Most 100 Influential People in National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) history. Since the beginning, she has broadcasted for the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) on NBC and ESPN/ABC. Since 1983, Meyers-Drysdale has served as an ESPN analyst for various events, including men's and women's NCAA basketball, volleyball and softball games. She has covered the NCAA women's basketball tournament since 1985. She previously served as an analyst on Prime's coverage of NCAA basketball (1985-1996) and worked as a commentator for CBS's coverage of the NCAA men's and women's basketball championships (1991-1995). She also worked with ABC on the coverage of the 1984 Olympic Games, WTBS for the Goodwill Games (1986 and 1990) and NBC for the 2000 and 2004 Olympic Games. She was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1993 and the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 1999 and was the first woman inducted into the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Hall of Famebecause of her outstanding contributions to the sport of women's basketball. Meyers-Drysdale was also inducted into the Women's Sports Foundation's International Women's Sports Hall of Fame in the contemporary category in 1985. Meyers-Drysdale became the first woman signed by the National Basketball Association (1979) and was named Most Valuable Player of the Women's Basketball League. Although she was the only woman in the SuperStars competition, Meyers-Drysdale won the basketball competition three years in a row. She was the winner of the Broderick Cup award for the nation's most outstanding female player in 1978. In 1976, Meyers-Drysdale played for the United States' first Olympic women's basketball team, which won a silver medal. Meyers-Drysdale was a four-time All-American basketball player at UCLA, where she led the Bruins to the National Championship in 1979. Meyers-Drysdale is also the first athlete, male or female to be a four-time Kodak All-American. A true all-around athlete, she was also a member of the UCLA track and field and volleyball teams. She was the first woman to receive a scholarship at UCLA in 1975. Meyers-Drysdale was also the first high school basketball player to make a United States national Team in 1974. (04/07)