WNBA Fundraiser

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Come out to show your support for our home team, the Phoenix Mercury, and meet an inspirational sports legend.

Heart Tools and Elite Sports Training, Inc. have joined together to present this community outreach and WNBA fundraising event, featuring guest speaker Ann Meyers Drysdale — multiple Hall of Famer; former Olympian; former sports analyst for ESPN, CBS, and NBC; current vice president of the Phoenix Suns; and current general manager for the Phoenix Mercury. Scorch, the Mercury mascot, will also be making an appearance.

This fundraising effort will go toward supporting upcoming WNBA events:

• A basketball clinic held at the U.S. Airways Practice Court (Aug. 30)
• The Phoenix Mercury game against the Los Angeles Sparks (Sept. 13)

You’ll have an opportunity, at the fundraiser, to secure a spot for both these events.

For more information, please contact Peggy at Heart Tools or Derrick at Elite Sports Training:

About Ann Meyers Drysdale

The legendary Ms. Meyers Drysdale is a pioneering and groundbreaking sports icon: She was the first woman to sign a contract with a men’s NBA team, the Indiana Pacers; the first woman inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame; the first basketball player, male or female, named to four All-America teams; the first high school basketball player to make the U.S. women’s basketball team; and a member of the first U.S. women’s Olympic basketball team, which went on to win a silver medal at the 1976 Games in Montreal.

Following the Olympics, Meyers attended UCLA as the school’s first female recipient of a full athletic scholarship, leading the Bruins to a national championship in 1978. She led the Bruins in rebounding, assists, steals, and blocked shots in each of her four seasons with the team, and she became the only player, male or female, in school history to record a quadruple-double with 20 points, 14 rebounds, 10 assists, and 10 steals.

In 1979, Meyers was the top pick in the Women’s Professional Basketball League draft. That season, she was named as the WBL’s first MVP.

After a single season with the WBL, Meyers went on to a long and successful career as a television and radio broadcaster, providing color commentary and play-by-play coverage for men’s and women’s college basketball games on CBS, NBC, and ESPN.

Meyers was named to her first Hall of Fame in 1985, when she was inducted into the International Women’s Sports Hall of Fame for basketball. Three years later, she became the first female inducted into the UCLA Athletics Hall of Fame, and in 1993, she scored yet another first, becoming the first woman inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass. She was later named to the National High School Hall of Fame, the FIBA Hall of Fame, and the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame.

Meyers’ #15 college jersey was one of the first four basketball jerseys retired by UCLA, alongside Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s, Denise Curry’s, and Bill Walton’s. Her high school jersey was also officially retired by her high school, Sonora High, in La Habra, Calif.

In 2001, Meyers was honored as a Wooden All-Time All-American by the Wooden Award.

She currently serves as vice president of the Phoenix Suns and general manager of the Phoenix Mercury.