Rebecca Lobo: The Latina Who Impacted WNBA History

While the WNBA has now been around for 25 years, there were numerous times during its early years when many wondered if the league would survive. 

Of course, it helped to have collegiate superstar Rebecca Lobo around to help bring legitimacy to the league. 

Born in 1973 in Hartford, Connecticut, Lobo grew up Massachusetts and attended the University of Connecticut. Initially listed as one of her “safety schools,” Lobo wanted to leave the Northeast for college. However, Huskies coach Geno Auriemma convinced her to stay home and play basketball at UConn.

“I wanted to help take a program where it hadn’t been before,” she told ESPN in 2013. “But I never could have imagined what happened at UConn my last two years.”

The 48-year-old is referring to the 1995 season that literally changed the course women’s sports (specifically basketball) in the United States. 

As a member of the UConn women’s basketball team, Lobo was a central part of a group that finished undefeated (35-0) and won the NCAA National Championship.

For her efforts, she was showered with numerous awards, including the 1995 Associated Press Female Player of the Year award, the NCAA Women’s Basketball Player of the Year award, and an ESPY recognizing her as the 1995 Outstanding Female Athlete.

The Buzz created by UConn’s dominant run helped bring immediate exposure to the sport.

“In hindsight, our 1995 UConn team was instrumental in bringing national attention to the University of Connecticut and the sport of women’s basketball,” Lobo told ESPN. “Having ESPN in our backyard translated into more interest from those at the network. I don’t think it was a coincidence that ESPN started their expanded coverage of the tournament a year after our run.”

Auriemma understands what Lobo’s contributions meant not only for the basketball program, but to his career as well.

“I think the greatest thing I’ll take away from her career here is that Rebecca came to Connecticut and made us a National program from being a regional program,” he said.

After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in Liberal Arts, the 6’4” center represented the United States at the 1996 Olympic Games, winning a gold medal and further cementing her legacy as a legendary Latina athlete.

With a laundry list of accomplishments already in tow, Lobo cold have easily rested on her laurels and enjoyed the fruits of her labor. Instead, she was part of the inaugural class for the WNBA in 1997 and signed with the New York Liberty. While she is remembered for her time in New York, she also played with the Houston Comets and the Connecticut Sun.

Through it all, she always understood the impact she could have as a female Latina athlete.

“I remember being with the Houston Comets and playing a game in Los Angeles,” she said. “There was a whole section in the STAPLES Center (Now Crypto.com Arena) filled with Hispanic boys and girls who came to cheer me on. Pretty amazing.”  

She also embraced the responsibility of being a role model that young girls could look up to.

“I think it is always important to they’ll the stories of those who may feel underrepresented in certain areas,” she told ESPN. “There were not a lot of prominent Hispanic female athletes when I was growing up. There weren’t a lot of female sports competitions on TV, period. It is nice to see that now you’re girls can easily find someone to admire, including athletes like Diana Taurasi, Lisa Fernandez, etc.”

After retirement, Lobo joined ESPN as a basketball analyst and reporter, a position she maintains to this day.

Lobo is married to fellow journalist Steve Rushin, and the couple have four kids together. They host a weekly podcast (Ball & Chain), where they discuss trending sports topics and the day to day happenings of married life with kids.

She was Inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2017, and founded the RuthAnn and Rebecca Lobo Scholarship in Allied Health at UConn to assist with her philanthropic endeavors.

Despite everything she has accomplished, Lobo still looks at that ‘95 season as, not only a high point, but the foundation and catalyst to everything that followed.

“It was like ecstasy,” she recently told CT Insider. “It was an emotion I’d never felt before, like it was four years in the making. It was all of us coming together to do this together.”