Sheryl Swoop is the first player to be signed in the WNBA born March 25, 1971. She is an American former professional basketball player. A three-time WNBA MVP.
Swoop was named one of the league’s Top 15 Players of All Time at the 2011 WNBA All-Star Game. She has won three Olympic gold medals and is one of ten women’s basketball players to have won an Olympic gold medal, an NCAA Championship, and a WNBA title. She was inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame.
From dunks, adrenaline rush and victory points in basketball Sheryl Denise Swoopes knows it all too well.
Swoopes developed an early passion for the game, playing pick-up games with her three older brothers. Soon after, she began competing at age seven in a local children’s league called Little Dribblers. She later played basketball at Brownfield High School. Although recruited by the University of Texas, Swoopes enrolled at South Plains College.
After playing at South Plains for two years, Swoopes transferred to Texas Tech, near her hometown, setting several basketball records before moving on to become a professional basketball player for the Houston Comets and later the Seattle Storm.
A few of Swoope’s noted accomplishments in her lifetime include; the NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship in 1993, 1993 Sports Woman of the year by Women’s Sports Foundation, three Olympic gold medals, 1993 Female Associated Press Athlete of the Year Award as well as the Honda Sports Award for basketball in 1993.
Others include being named one of the 20 Female Athletes of the decade (2000 to 2010) by Sports Illustrated and being inducted to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2016. She was also later inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in 2017. Swoopes is also the first Women’s basketball player to have a Nike shoe named after her: The Air Swoopes.
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