Ann Meyers

Dick Ebersol knew how to play this one. About three weeks ago, the head of NBC Sports called Dick Enberg to see if he wouldn't mind working a regional NBA telecast this Sunday involving the Utah Jazz at Seattle. "He apologized and said he knew how I valued my weekends off," Enberg said. "He was having a tough time selling me until he said, 'Oh, and by the way, your broadcast partner would be Ann Meyers.' "I thought, 'You son of a gun.' He had me. There was no way I could say no.

All-time loves Babe Didrikson and George Zaharias: Didrikson won two gold medals and a silver in track and field at the 1932 Olympics, won 41 LPGA events and is the only woman to make the cut in a PGA Tour event. Zaharias was a professional wrestler whose nickname was "The Crying Greek From Cripple Creek. " They were married from 1938 until her death in 1956. Don Drysdale and Ann Meyers: Drysdale appeared in "The Brady Bunch" and was apparently a baseball player of some sort.

Ann Meyers figures she came along just at the right time. A couple of years earlier, there would have been no chance at an athletic scholarship for her. But in 1975, Meyers was the first woman to receive a full athletic scholarship at UCLA. Given that opportunity, Meyers was a four-year All-American in women's basketball and led UCLA to the AIAW national title in 1978. She also played on the silver medal Olympic team in 1976.

The daughter and Ann Meyers Drysdale have so much in common. They are both women. Ann is in something like eight Hall of Fames, a basketball superstar in high school and college, earning $50,000 and a three-day tryout with the NBA Indianapolis Pacers and a silver medal winner in the Olympics. The first time the daughter played basketball, she tripped over the half-court line and fell. Later she would stumble over one of those recessed cracks in a sidewalk, and fall on her face, which explains the scar on her forehead.

Ann Meyers wasn't the first born. She was the sixth of 11 Meyers children. But since becoming the first girl to play on the fifth- and sixth-grade boys' teams at Ladeira Palma Elementary School in La Habra, she has accumulated a long list of firsts. She played seven sports at Sonora High School. She was the first woman to receive a full athletic scholarship--for basketball--to UCLA.

It wasn't as though athletic superiority was a physical requirement in a marriage partner. It just happened to work out that way. Ann Meyers' athletic prowess in women's basketball is legendary. Don Drysdale is a legend. Nor was their betrothal part of a scientific experiment in the reproduction of herculean offspring--Drysdale is 6 feet 6 inches, Meyers 5-9. That just happens to be working out, too.

Dave Meyers has come back to basketball at the same moment basketball was looking for him. He teaches the game, the way Coach Wooden did. For an hour a week the last four weeks at the Temecula Recreation Center, it's drills and more drills--the same ones from Meyers' salad days at UCLA. Meyers enjoys these Friday afternoons working with kids, some of whom are literally knee high. He can pass along knowledge in the sport he loves in a setting he loves.

Pat Haden, Ann Meyers and Charles Smith will be honored at the Constitutional Rights Foundation's Sports and the Law dinner and auction tonight at the Century Plaza Tower Hotel.

Elvin Hayes and Bob Lanier, former NBA stars, were among 16 people nominated for election to the Basketball Hall of Fame. Ann Meyers, a former UCLA star, also was nominated.

After years of trying, the WNBA finally has lured one of the most recognizable names in women's basketball out of the broadcast booth. Ann Meyers Drysdale -- four-time UCLA All-American, the only woman to sign a free-agent contract and try out for an NBA team, widow of Dodgers' Hall of Fame pitcher Don Drysdale, and an award-winning commentator -- signed on Tuesday to become general manager of the Phoenix Mercury.

ESPN play-by-play announcer Mike Patrick, after reading a promo for high-definition television last weekend, said, "It's the best thing to happen to television since Ann Meyers." That might have been an overstatement, but Patrick was only doing what comes naturally. "I've never met anyone who knows Annie who doesn't rave about her," Patrick said from his home in Burke, Va., before heading to New Orleans for the NCAA women's Final Four.

If it's Wednesday, it must be soccer. If it's Saturday, it might be a mad scramble from one youngster's soccer game in the morning to another's basketball game at noon, a cousin's birthday party after that and a speaking engagement at night. "Nice move, Drew!" Ann Meyers Drysdale shouts as her 9-year-old daughter breaks free and sprints down the right sideline toward the goal at a Huntington Beach park, slender legs churning, short hair flying.

Dick Ebersol knew how to play this one. About three weeks ago, the head of NBC Sports called Dick Enberg to see if he wouldn't mind working a regional NBA telecast this Sunday involving the Utah Jazz at Seattle. "He apologized and said he knew how I valued my weekends off," Enberg said. "He was having a tough time selling me until he said, 'Oh, and by the way, your broadcast partner would be Ann Meyers.' "I thought, 'You son of a gun.' He had me. There was no way I could say no.

Dave Meyers has come back to basketball at the same moment basketball was looking for him. He teaches the game, the way Coach Wooden did. For an hour a week the last four weeks at the Temecula Recreation Center, it's drills and more drills--the same ones from Meyers' salad days at UCLA. Meyers enjoys these Friday afternoons working with kids, some of whom are literally knee high. He can pass along knowledge in the sport he loves in a setting he loves.

John Wooden said he is certain that two UCLA players--Bill Walton and Ann Meyers--will be voted to the Basketball Hall of Fame today. Another favorite is Julius Erving. Erving and Walton, who retired in 1987, were nominated in their first year of eligibility. Other nominees include NBA greats Walt Bellamy, Dan Issel, Dick McGuire, Calvin Murphy and Richie Guerin.

Sonora graduate Ann Meyers Drysdale is no stranger to firsts. She was the first high school player to make the U.S. national basketball team in 1974 and the first woman to receive a full scholarship to UCLA. Drysdale, who graduated in 1974, was the only woman to sign an NBA contract (with the Indiana Pacers in 1979) and became the only woman elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1993.

A year ago, there was joy in the life of Ann Meyers. On March 10, she had given birth to Drew Ann, the first daughter and third child for her and husband Don Drysdale. A week later, she was off to work the first two rounds of the NCAA men's basketball tournament for CBS. Two weeks after that, she announced the women's Final Four. Spring was in the air and the start of the baseball season was just around the corner.