Ann Drysdale, First Woman to Try Out for Men's NBA Team

Basketball, NBA, WNBA | HalfMiler | February 9, 2010 at 12:49 PM

Photo courtesy of uclabruins

Ann Meyers Drysdale was born March 26, 1955 in San Diego, California.

She competed in softball, badminton, field hockey, tennis and basketball at Sonora High School in La Habra, California. She played basketball on boy’s basketball teams in middle school. Leading her basketball team to an 80-5 record, Drysdale was the first high school student to play for the U.S. National team.

Moving on to college, Drysdale won a four-year athletic scholarship to UCLA where she played for the UCLA Bruins women’s basketball team. It was the first time a woman had won a four-year athletic scholarship. As a player there, she received the Broderick Award as Outstanding Women’s College Basketball Player of the Year and the Broderick Cup for Outstanding Woman Athlete of the Year in 1978.

In that same year, Drysdale recorded the first quadruple-double in Division I basketball history. She scored 20 points, 14 rebounds, 10 assists and 10 steals. This record wasn’t broken until Lester Hudson, a junior guard at the University of Tennessee at Martion. Also in 1978, the UCLA Bruins were the AIAW national champion.

Drysdale was on the U.S. team that won the Gold medal at the 1975 Pan American Games. She also played Olympic basketball in the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal. There the U.S. team took the Silver. It was the year women’s basketball made its Olympic debut. She won two more Silvers in 1977 at the World University Games and the 1979 Pan American Games. She took home another Gold medal at the 1979 FIBA World Championship for Women, the first time since 1957 that the United States had won a World Championship title.

But the next year was when Drysdale truly made history. She signed a no-cut contract with the men’s NBA Indiana Pacers valued at $50,000. After participating in three-day tryouts for the team, she was not chosen for the final squad. But she was the first woman allowed to participate in the tryouts.

“Lots of people have dreams, and my dream has always been to make the NBA. I have played against Calvin Murphy, Wilt Chamberlain, Julius Erving and other male pros in pickup games at UCLA and in Las Vegas and have held my own.” [1]

Her jersey was #14 for the New Jersey Gems when she was the first woman drafted for the Women’s Professional Basketball League (WPBL). She was co-MVP for the 1979-1980 season. For three consecutive years, Drysdale won TV’s Women Superstars competition.

After attending the Don Martin School of Broadcasting school in Hollywood, Drysdale left playing basketball behind to become a sports analyst. In 2006, she was named General Manager of the Phoenix Mercury Women’s National Baseball Association team.

Drysdale married Don Drysdale in 1986, a player for the Los Angeles Dodgers. They both hold spots in the Basketball Hall of Fame and the Baseball Hall of Fame (respectively.) Don Drysdale died of a heart attack in 1993. The Drysdales had three children.

“To this day, it still warms my heart when someone will come up to me, wherever I am, and tell me a story about how Don had done something nice to positively affect their lives in baseball, in broadcasting or in everyday life.” [2]

In game two of the National League Championship Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Philadelphia Phillies, Drysdale was honored to throw the ceremonial first pitch in memory of her husband.

Ann Drysdale still holds the UCLA career records for: season steals (125), career steals (403) and career blocked shots (101). Drysdale was inducted into the International Women’s Hall of Fame in 1985 and was the first woman inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 1993. In 2006 she was awarded the Ronald Reagan Media Award from the United States Sports Academy. She was one of only three United States citizens enshrined in the FIBA Hall of Fame in 2007.

‘I think sports helped me. You don’t win every game. There are a lot of defeats in sports. It teaches you to maybe be a little stronger in life after sports. Sports teaches competitiveness and how to stand up for yourself.” [3]

Sources:
[1] Interview with the New York Times, Sept. 5, 1979
[2] Interview on WNBA website
[3] Interview with Orange County Register, 1995

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