PHOENIX (AP) — Ann Meyers Drysdale will always be a Bruin.
The UCLA great and women's basketball pioneer smiled as she was honored with other members of the 1976 US women’s Olympic basketball team at Sunday’s national championship game.
They all wore matching bright red Team USA shirts. But when Meyers Drysdale was introduced, she waved to the crowd at Mortgage Matchup Center in Phoenix, and then lifted up her red shirt to reveal a blue UCLA top celebrating
the team she won a national championship with as a player.
That title was nearly 50 years ago in the now dissolved AIAW — the postseason tournament for women's college basketball before the NCAA took over in 1982 — but Meyers Drysdale was filled with the same joy watching UCLA defeat South Carolina for its first NCAA-era title on Sunday.
“You know, there’s so much pride wearing USA across your jersey,” Meyers Drysdale said. "There’s no question that I am once a Bruin, aways a Bruin. And there’s no way I was not going to wear a UCLA shirt under my USA shirt, just to show the fans that all of us are so supportive of this team.”
Meyers Drysdale was the first woman to receive a full athletic scholarship at UCLA and helped the Bruins beat Maryland in the 1978 AIAW national championship game.
A lot has changed besides the sport’s governing body in the five decades since she and her teammates hoisted that trophy, but Meyers Drysdale's presence within the Bruins program has remained the same.
She has often been a guiding voice, always making herself available to players and coaches for advice and encouragement.
“It’s been spectacular to have Annie. I got a text from her last night,” UCLA coach Cori Close said Saturday afternoon. “I’ve known Annie a long time. She’s never wavered in terms of what she’s been to me, as a young coach all the way through to my being a head coach at UCLA. I am just so grateful for that.”
Close has said that sharing a UCLA championship with Meyers Drysdale and other pioneers who paved the way for her program would be special.
During UCLA's title run, Close often corrected anyone who mentioned the Bruins were chasing their first national championship — making sure no one forgets that 1978 team.
“She is also giving these young women the history of the game themselves,” said Meyers Drysdale, now a basketball analyst and vice president with the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury, “because they are part of history. This is their win. This is their game. This is their championship. And we are just part of the history of it.”
UCLA used its size, shooting, and the experience and chemistry of its six starting seniors — including 6-foot-7 star Lauren Betts — to completely shut down South Carolina in the national championship game and complete a yearslong climb to the top.
After losing to UConn in their first Final Four appearance last year, the Bruins ran through their opponents this season, with their only loss coming to Texas in a November tournament.
“Just pride, pride,” Meyers Drysdale said of her emotions, one quarter before the Bruins' title became official, "and knowing the journey they’ve been on, not just the last two years, but before that.
“Cori with the players that she’s brought in and the seniors and grad seniors on this team. ... We all love UCLA.”
For Close, who has a deep connection with UCLA, the support of pioneers like Meyers Drysdale is especially meaningful.
Close has coached the Bruins for 15 seasons, but before that she was mentored by Bruins men’s coach John Wooden, who won 10 national championships at the school. Close visited Wooden bi-weekly, adopting his “Pyramid of Success” and focus on character.
It paid off with her team.
“Cori Close and her staff have done such a terrific job," Meyers Drysdale said, ”preaching competitive greatness and being your best when the best is needed. You love the joy that they play with, and they sacrifice for each other. They don’t care who scores. They don’t care who gets what recognition. They’re just all about winning.”
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AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-womens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness
