Q & A WITH Ann Meyers : Woman of Many Firsts Hopes Her Sports Endeavors Will Last

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.

She was the first four-time female collegiate All-American and the first woman to have her uniform retired by the National Basketball Hall of Fame. She led the United States to a silver medal as a member of the 1976 Olympic basketball team and led the Bruins to their only national championship in women’s basketball--in 1978, her senior season.

She was the first woman drafted in the now-defunct Women’s Professional Basketball League and the only woman drafted by a National Basketball Assn. team.

It has been a decade since the Indiana Pacers drafted her, signed her to a $50,000 personal services contract and brought her to training camp. Although she did not make the first cut, the Pacers helped launch her career in the broadcast booth.

It has been a struggle to find an outlet for her athletic skills after college, but Meyers remains an optimist. She talks about her experience with the Pacers, life with her husband, former Dodger pitching great Don Drysdale, and son Don Jr., who is 3, and the birth of their second child expected in early September.

Question: After college, what opportunities were there for you to continue your basketball career?

Answer: I graduated in 1979 and my goal was to go to the 1980 Olympics. I had no idea what I wanted to do and I was the No. 1 draft choice in the Women’s Professional Basketball League. The way things were falling, I just thought, ‘Well, I’ll go back to the Olympics and keep my amateur status and then go from there.’ When I got back from the Spartakiade Games (in the Soviet Union), that’s when I received a call to try out for the Indiana Pacers.

I thought to myself, ‘Well, I’ve been to the Olympics.’ And things really weren’t falling my way on the national team. I was only 24, which is not over the hill, but I really felt that they were phasing me out. They felt that I was too old . . .

I had a very good chance of making the 1980 Olympic team. They were basically going to keep a lot of those players together, but I thought, ‘Where else am I going to make that kind of money?’ They offered me $50,000 and it was like, ‘Whooa!’

I just thought it would open up a lot of doors for me whether I made the team or not. I had a personal services contract and I made the decision before Jimmy Carter decided to boycott . . . the 1980 Olympics.

Q: Did you firmly believe that physically and in terms of skill you could play for the Indiana Pacers?

A: Yes.

Q: And you still believe that today?

A: Yes, but I also believe today, I see in my mind that I literally probably could have gotten killed.

Q: Why are you so convinced that you could have competed?

A: Because I’ve grown up playing the game of basketball and I grew up playing it against guys and I just felt it was an opportunity that most men don’t get. And that’s one thing I try to convey to a lot of kids when I speak at camps, banquets and that type of thing, that is don’t let people tell you you can’t do something. Don’t let them say, ‘Well, you’re not smart enough, you’re not pretty enough, you’re not tall enough, you’re not this and that.’ Don’t let those negative things bring you down.

If someone gives you a chance or an opportunity, whether they think you can do it or not, go for it. And if it doesn’t work out, it’s not that you failed, it’s because there was some reason you didn’t make it. And it’s a learning experience.

Q: Since you feel you were skilled enough, what do you think was the reason you didn’t make the Pacers?

A: I really believe in my heart that I should have made the first cut, that I should have been playing in some of the preseason games.

There were several players who were in the same category who really did not have a chance to make the team, and yet they continued on through the preseason . . . There are so many variables involved in something like that. The coach, it was very difficult for him to accept. It was very difficult for the organization to accept. They had worked so hard to be a reputable team in the NBA because they had won three (American Basketball Assn.) championships. But it was still like Indiana just didn’t have good recognition in the NBA, and the respectability. And so a lot of people were very upset and concerned that it was going to be a circus atmosphere.

I really believe that with my attitude coming in, it helped calm things down a lot. I did not go in using it as a publicity ploy.

Q: So you come out of that situation and eventually sign with the New Jersey Gems of the Women’s Professional Basketball League.

A: Yes. I was with the Indiana Pacers for about 2 1/2 months. I was working in the front office and also doing the commentating. As I said, I knew it would open up a lot of doors, which it did, and it was stipulated in the contract that I also would do the broadcasting, which has obviously led into my career now.

But I went and signed with the New Jersey Gems, because I still had that (playing) in my blood and the Pacers released me from my contract. I signed a three-year deal, played the first year and won (most valuable player) in 1979-80. The second year I sat out because they hadn’t paid me all my money from the first year, and the third year the league folded.

Q: Did you ever play women’s professional ball again?

A: No. I had the opportunity to go over to Europe, but the way things worked out, the year I played in the WBL was my first year in the women’s Superstars competition, and I came in fourth. I played a lot of different sports and was a pretty good athlete, but I was conditioned to play basketball at that particular time and it was a two-day event where you did seven of 10 events in two days and it was physically and mentally draining, and I didn’t know how to prepare for it. Still, I came in fourth and thought, ‘Wow! There’s a lot of money to be made here.’

But the year I sat out, I knew I wasn’t going to play because they weren’t going to pay me. I took a stand because I learned a lot from being in the NBA and also from having my brother (David) playing with the (Milwaukee) Bucks, knowing what professional sports were all about. I was not treated like a professional athlete in the WBL. I took a stand and I knew it would hurt me financially and it did. I think a lot of the women players were upset with me, but it was just something that had to be done.

So I (trained) for the Superstars and won it. I made around $50,000 each year. I had lost around $85,000 in the WBL. So I trained those three years for the Superstars, but also I was broadcasting in between, so, in essence, in order for me to go to Europe, I felt that I would have lost a lot of contacts over here.

Q: When you were finished with the Superstars, did you still have the desire to play basketball?

A: I did. The thing that’s frustrating is the fact that, as an athlete, you’re so young and you have so much ability and there are no avenues. Yes, I could have gone to Europe, but I was going through a phase in my life, trying to make the change, mentally, to a different career. I have had several opportunities to go back, too, not only to Europe, but, you know, now they have opened the Olympics up to professionals.

In ’84 I had the opportunity to play on the Olympic handball team. They wanted me to play. I mean, I could have made that team. But I reached a point in my life where I had to ask, did I want to sit back and train again for a year and be on the road and spend eight to 10 hours a day training and being out of the country? I had started to evolve into a different life where I was doing commercials. I was doing a lot of celebrity tennis tournaments, which were really fun to go to, and the broadcasting.

Q: Do you feel you were forced to give up the idea of competing professionally because there really wasn’t an avenue for you to make money at it as a woman?

A: No. You accept what is given to you. People come back and say, wouldn’t you rather have been born 10 years later and played against Cheryl Miller and had the opportunities these gals have today and play against some of these players? Oh, sure, it would be nice. But I played against some darn good players in my time and you can’t take anything away from those players and what they did and established, and even the women who played before us.

Q: What are your priorities now?

A: Well, my family, first of all. I think because of my family, the way I was brought up, it has shown me that when it comes down to it, that your family and friends are what is important. I had a sister, Kelly, who died when she was 20 in a car accident. She was playing basketball at Pepperdine. She died Aug. 9, six years ago. I mean, life is so precious and to have a child, too (Don Jr.), it’s incredible to see that something like that can be created and healthy. It really is a miracle.

Q: This is a society where there is a little conditioning going on, boys do this and girls do that, and you kind of broke the mold. You were an athlete at heart, so you did athletic things that were traditionally the domain of men. Did that make it difficult in your personal romantic relationships?

A: I think it’s very difficult for, not only a lot of women athletes, but a lot of professional women who are very secure within themselves and very confident in what they do, and who know where they are going in their lives. Men are intimidated by that.

Your time will come where you find the right guy.

Q: So is it safe to assume that Don Drysdale was not intimidated?

A: Sometimes I wonder now (laughing) . . . No. He’s 53. Don’s 53. So he is older than I am. And he was married before and so I think that he had gone through all of his stuff as far as his recognition and achieving what he had achieved in his profession. And so I think he was very secure within himself.

Q: Was motherhood ever a difficult issue for you as a world-class athlete? Men as athletes don’t have to think, ‘If I have this child, it is going to change my body.’ Was that ever something that you thought about?

A: Not in the beginning. But after I got pregnant, it was. (laughing) You look at yourself in the mirror and go, ‘Oh no!’ But if you talk to most women athletes, they will tell you, and I know for myself, that it is such a joy to create something like that and to have it come out of your body and to feel that closeness to another human being.

Most athletes will tell you, and they have done research and studies on this, that women will perform better after they have had children.

I plan on continuing to play basketball as long as I can. I mean I see myself at 50 and 60 years old going out and shooting hoops, whether it be with my kids or whatever. It’s such a great release for me.

I love tennis and I love golf, and it is important for me to stay in shape, not only for myself and my well-being but also for other people. Like I said, I still do camps and clinics and I think it is important for kids to see that it is important to us to take care of our bodies.

Q: Tell me a little bit about your broadcast career. It is an area where pioneering can still be done and I imagine there are the frustrations that can go along with that. The same kind of frustration you experienced trying to be a professional athlete.

A: Exactly. And that is why I am able to correlate and relate a lot of those same feelings, and I am better able to deal with those things. I have been turned down for a lot of jobs. And been turned down for a lot of reasons that can be very frustrating to listen to and just very aggravating. I think because of being an athlete and maybe because of the timing as far as when I could not go somewhere to compete. . . .

People would say things that would just blow me away.

I am better able to deal with it now, but when I first got into broadcasting, it really affected me. And now I have learned that there are going to be an awful lot of people out there who don’t like me, whether it be because of my voice, whether it be because I’m female, whether it be because my hair is too short or I don’t wear the right clothes or whatever, or they don’t think I know what I’m talking about--hopefully that is the real reason, because at least that way, I can improve myself, and that’s where it should be improved.

Q: What is going on with your broadcasting right now?

This year I will be doing the men’s UCLA (basketball) games on (KMPC) radio. Last year I worked for Z Channel, which is now SportsChannel, and did men’s Loyola (Marymount) games. And I also did some women’s games in Southern California for Prime Ticket. I have also worked ESPN, done the basketball regionals, done softball the last five years, have done volleyball . . .

I’ve been in the business 10 years now, and it seems like I’m still trying to get my foot in the door.

I consider this a big break because I am working on a regular basis now, and whether it was with UCLA or USC or Vegas or Notre Dame or Long Beach, I don’t care what school I’m with, I consider myself a professional. I just feel that UCLA gave me an opportunity.

Q: Give me as brief an assessment of married life with Don Drysdale.

A: Well, I just look at him as another person. I didn’t know who he was when I first met him. I hadn’t followed baseball that closely. My brothers did and they collected baseball cards and all that. I was a Giants fan because they were Giants fans. I didn’t know who Don was.

So married life in general, it takes a lot of hard work, just like anything else, and I don’t think people today work or want to put enough time into the marriage if there is a crisis or a problem. It is the same thing as in anything, communication. You have to talk.

But being married to Don, I enjoy the recognition that he gets because he so deserves it. But there are times . . .

Like recently when he was hospitalized (for a heart problem) and off the air for two weeks. It was nice to have him home and it gave him the opportunity to do something with D.J., and we went to Universal Studios. Well, with somebody like Don, it is very uncomfortable and difficult to go out because people are constantly coming up to him. He would like to go to a movie or Disneyland and just enjoy, like anybody else, and sometimes he does not get that opportunity.

Q: What is the most exciting thing on the horizon for Ann Meyers?

A: I think probably the birth of this child. As far as career wise, the broadcasting season with basketball coming up.

Q: What is the most frightening thing on the horizon?

A: There isn’t anything. I don’t look at things that way. There are always going to be tragic things that happen. You just deal with them then, in your own way. And everybody has a different way of dealing with them.

But I don’t look at anything as tragic. I mean you can’t. That’s being a real pessimist.