Ann Meyers Drysdale ’79

Ann Meyers Drysdale is the recipient of the 2017 Professional Achievement Award. She is a major figure in the history of women’s basketball and sports journalism. A retired basketball player and sportscaster, Meyers Drysdale is a UCLA Athletics Hall of Fame inductee and the first player in NCAA history to record a quadruple-double. She won two WNBA titles while serving as the general manager for the Phoenix Mercury, and another as vice president for the team. An Olympian, Meyers Drysdale led the U.S. to a silver medal at the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal as women’s basketball made its Olympic debut. She covered a wide variety of sports for major networks in the U.S. including the Goodwill Games, men’s and women’s college basketball, NCAA softball and several Olympics. Meyers Drysdale was inducted to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1993 and was also inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame’s inaugural class in 1999. She was named the 2017 Naismith Outstanding Contributor to Women’s Basketball, presented annually to individuals whose extraordinary efforts have made contributions of outstanding significance and have created a long‐lasting positive impact on the game of basketball. She graduated from UCLA with a B.A. in sociology.