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Jill Pizzotti has been the head coach of the women's basketball team for the last two years and has been involved in college basketball either as an athlete or a coach for the past 14 years. Grand Connections recently asked her to give us her Top 10 female athletes of all time.
By Jill Pizzotti
- Babe Didrikson Zaharias. She was a tremendous all-around athlete in the 1930s & excellent in track and field, golf and tennis.
- Wilma Rudolph. A well-known track star, she won three gold medals in the 1960 Olympics.
- Jackie Joyner-Kersee. Joyner-Kersee, a heptathlete, is our country's most decorated female athlete.
- Billie Jean King. An outstanding tennis player, King brought much-needed attention to the sport and to female athletes.
- Nadia Comaneci. This Romanian gymnast is most famous for her Olympic performance in 1976: three gold medals and seven perfect scores.
- Martina Navratilova. She owned the sport of tennis from late '70s through the '80s.
- Helen Wills Moody. A tennis player, she was one of the best-known female athletes in the Golden Era of sports (1920s).
- Nancy Lieberman Cline. She was one of the first female players to attract national attention to the sport of women's basketball. She starred at Old Dominion University, on Olympic teams, played for the Washington Generals and currently is playing at age 39 in the WNBA.
- Ann Meyer. She was a standout basketball player at UCLA and the first female player to be invited to try out for an NBA team. She's currently a television basketball analyst.
- Bonnie Blair. A speed skater, she was our country's top female performer at the 1996 Winter Olympics.
Honorable mentions: Lynnette Woodard (basketball), Flo Hyman (volleyball), Cheryl Miller (basketball), Peggy Fleming (figure skating), Chris Evert (tennis), Mary Lou Retton (gymnastics), Mia Hamm (soccer), Dot Richardson (softball), Cammi Granato (ice hockey) and Marian Jones (track and field).