Rebecca Lobo - Time for NAISMITH Hall of Fame

Rebecca Lobo, While With WNBA Connecticut Sun

(Photo by Alfredo)

The Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame is the pride of Springfield, Mass and they do a great job. But one glaring oversight is their failure to induct women's player, Rebecca Lobo, into the Naismith Hall of Fame. It should have been done years ago.

Why? She has all the credentials, but even more than that she IS Women's Basketball ! The current rein and domination of women's college basketball by UConn started with heavily recruited Rebecca Lobo...she was the beginning that culminated with their first National Title in 1995 ending up with an undefeated 35-0 record. She was a major factor in starting it all where now they have an unbelievable record of 11 National Titles. She was heavily recruited out of Southwick - Tolland, MA High School where she held the state scoring title that lasted for 18 years. In 1995 she was an All American in both academics and basketball. She was the Player of the Year and also received the Honda Broderick Cup. The Women's Sports Foundation declared her the Sportswoman of the Year.

But a key here is much more than just records, awards and accomplishments, it is what she said and did with her notoriety that I remember clearly to this day. She raised the question as why she, as an American, should HAVE to go the Europe to play professional basketball. She said that she should be able to play in America, in her own country. People listened. She became, in a sense, the spark and founder that caused the formation and creation of the Women's National Basketball Association, the WNBA. She was a pioneer who not only pushed them to create the WNBA, but she pushed the sport of women's basketball to the forefront and to higher levels. For this alone she should be in the Hall ! Oh, she went ahead to play on the Olympics USA Gold Medal Team, and accomplish some great things in the WNBA, then on further as an ESPN sportscaster for women's basketball.

She was featured in an article on Top Women in Basketball History in "About Education" written by Jone Johnson Lewis, Women's History Expert. Lobo was inducted into the Women's Hall of Fame (note: not Naismith) deservedly in 2010. At the induction the following was said by her famed UConn Coach, Geno Auriemma.

"No one in all the years that I've been there, has had the impact on the court and off the court, that Rebecca has had and has continued both in the WNBA, as being one of the founders, both as a representative of our university, as a member of the board of trustees, continuing to promote the game on ESPN, and all the other things that Rebecca has done to further the role model that she is, for all the young people that looked up to her, emulated what she has always been, a great student, a great athlete, a great person, someone that I’ve cherished to have had the opportunity to work with, and to call my friend, and now to call my boss."

When watching a men's basketball game on television one of her daughters asked her mother, Rebecca Lobo, "Do boys play basketball too?"

Rebecca Lobo IS the face of women's basketball, not only in America, but across the world. She deserves to be in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. Over due. 

Alfredo DiLascia

Image News Service