Title: Vice President and Broadcaster
Company: Phoenix Suns & Phoenix Mercury
Location: Huntington Beach, California, United States
Ann Meyers Drysdale, Vice President and Broadcaster at Phoenix Suns & Phoenix Mercury, has been recognized by Marquis Who’s Who Top Executives for dedication, achievements, and leadership in athletic competition, broadcasting and business administration.
A groundbreaking Olympic athlete renowned as the first woman to try out for a team and sign a contract in the National Basketball Association with the Indiana Pacers in 1979, Ms. Meyers Drysdale has excelled with the Phoenix Suns as the vice president since 2007 and a broadcaster since 2012 as well as the Phoenix Mercury in the same positions since 2012. The former general manager for the Phoenix Mercury between 2007 and 2012, she initially found success as a professional basketball player with the New Jersey Gems, one of the three longest-lasting teams in the Women’s Professional Basketball League, from 1978 to 1981. Prior to her broadcasting career, she also competed for the UCLA Bruins from 1974 to 1978, in the US. Pan American Games Team in 1975 and 1979, the U.S. Women’s Olympic Basketball Team in 1976, the NCAA Women’s Basketball All-Americans from 1976 to 1979, and in the 1979 FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup before playing in the Women Superstars competition between 1979 and 1982. In fact, Ms. Meyers Drysdale subsequently became the first and only woman to be invited to compete in the Men Superstars competition.
Additionally acknowledged as the first woman game analyst and NBA broadcaster for Indiana Pacers, Ms. Meyers Drysdale has served as a broadcaster and sports analyst for such television networks as ESPN, CBS and TNT over the years. She has also been recruited as a broadcaster for the 1984 Summer Olympics on ABC and the Summer Olympic Games between 2000 and 2016 on NBC. Beyond her primary responsibilities in her field, she has contributed to her community and those in need through numerous charity golf tournaments and her efforts with Elevate Phoenix, an organization that supports inner-city children. In 2012. Ms. Meyers Drysdale notably authored her autobiography. “You Let Some Girl Beat You?: The Story of Ann Meyers Drysdale,” which is available in paperback, Kindle and audiobook formats via Behler Publications.
The first woman to obtain a full athletic scholarship at the University of California, Los Angeles, Ms. Meyers Drysdale graduated from the aforementioned university with a bachelor’s degree in 1978. As a testament to her exceptional athletic ability, she helped earn a Silver Medal for the U.S. Women’s Olympic Basketball Team in 1976, a National Championship for the UCLA Bruins in 1978, and a Gold Medal for the U.S. Pan American Team in 1975. Ms. Meyers Drysdale was likewise presented with 13 Most Valuable Player Awards, the Ronald Reagan Award for Broadcasting, the 1978 Honda Sports Award for Basketball for Outstanding Woman Athlete of the Year, the 1999 Mel Greenberg Media Award from the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association and the 2003 NCAA Silver Anniversary Award from the National Collegiate Athletic Association.
Throughout her impressive career, Ms. Meyers Drysdale has been recognized as the 1978 Honda-Broderick Cup Winner, the Co-MVP by the Women’s Professional Basketball League in 1980, the First Woman Competitor in the Celebrity Golf Association Championship in 1994 and a Wooden All-Time All-American at the John R. Wooden Awards in 2001. The first teen sports athlete inducted into the Women’s Sports Hall of Fame in 1988, she was additionally inducted to the International Women’s Sports Hall of Fame in 1985, the UCLA Athletics Hall of Fame in 1988, the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1993, the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in 1999, the FIBA Hall of Fame in 2007 and the Southern California Basketball Hall of Fame in 2022. Moreover, Ms. Meyers Drysdale’s uniform number, 15, was retired by the University of California Los Angeles in 1990.
Hailing from a family of esteemed athletes and sports enthusiasts, Ms. Meyers Drysdale attributes her success to her family, who instilled within her an extraordinary work ethic and a civic-minded nature. Outside of her professional endeavors, she is incredibly proud of raising three wonderful children, as well as the fact that her husband and she are the first married couple to become members of their respective sports’ Halls of Fame. Looking toward the future, Ms. Meyers Drysdale hopes to continue living each day as her masterpiece while giving back to society through her civic engagements and supporting her children however possible.
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