Swoopes, Sheryl 1971—

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Sheryl Swoopes 1971—

Professional basketball player

Homesickness Influenced Her Career

Making a Mark in the NCAA

Tough Times for a Female Pro

A Place on the National Team

Sources

Her name rhymes with “hoops.” Her talent has drawn comparisons with Michael Jordan. More importantly, she has earned that ultimate endorsement contract most athletes only dream about—a line of footwear named in her honor. Sheryl Swoopes is helping to re-define the limits of women’s professional basketball in the United States. A prominent member of the U.S. women’s national basketball team, Swoopes is the only player—male or female—ever to score 47 points in a collegiate national championship game. She is widely considered one of the finest women’s basketball players ever to grace a court. Former basketball phenomenon Nancy Lieberman-Cline told the Washington Post of Swoopes: “We’re breaking new ground with Sheryl. Women’s sports hasn’t had a team sport athlete with the star-appeal that Sheryl has. She’s young and pretty and articulate.... She’s the female Jordan.”

Being a “female Jordan” is nice, but the title does not bring with it the kind of salary and opportunities Michael Jordan enjoys. Indeed, Swoopes has been described as a “Legend without a League,” since women’s professional basketball has never been able to gain a foot-hold in the American market. In 1993 the engaging Swoopes completely dominated the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) championships. Had she been a man, she would have cruised into the National Basketball Association draft and landed on a team with a million-dollar salary. Instead she had to embark for Italy, where she faced homesickness, language barriers, and a meager salary by sports standards, just to be able to keep playing. Recent years have been kinder to the emerging star, however. She is an anchor of the women’s national team and the first sportswoman ever to get her own signature line of athletic footwear: the Nike “Air Swoopes” basketball shoes. She may make a pittance compared to Jordan, but she is still a wealthy woman with a bright future.

Homesickness Influenced Her Career

Swoopes was born in 1971 in Brownfield, Texas, a small city in the western region of the state. Her parents were divorced, and she grew up with her mother, Louise, and three brothers. Swoopes credits her siblings with helping to hone her game. “At first, they didn’t like playing with

At a Glance…

Born Sheryl Denise Swoopes, March 25,1971, in Brownfield, TX; daughter of Louise Swoopes; married, husband’s name Eric Jackson. Education: Attended South Plains Junior College, 1989-91; Texas Tech University, B.A., 1994.

Basketball player. Led the Texas Tech Lady Red Raiders to the National Collegiate Athletic Association Final Four, 1993; scored 47 points in the NCAA championship final as Texas Tech defeated Ohio State 84-82. Played professional basketball in Italy, 1993 and 1994. Joined U.S. Women’s basketball team, 1994; played in Goodwill Games and 1996 Summer Olympics.

Selected awards: Named collegiate player of the year, 1993; Naismith and Sullivan Awards for amateur athletics, 1993; named Sportswoman of the Year by Women’s Sports Foundation, 1993.

Addresses: c/o Nike, Inc., One Bowerman Dr., Beaverton, OR 97005.

me,” she admitted in the Los Angeles Times. “Then when they did, they wouldn’t play hard. But eventually one brother, James, played ball at Murray State. He’s 6-4. He wouldn’t play hard until he saw how good I was getting, when I beat him a couple of times.” With the help of her two older brothers, Swoopes developed into an All-State and All-American high school player—one who was eager to test her skills against any opponent. “It helps to play with the guys,” she explained in the Washington Post. “They’re so much more physical than girls are. Once you go out and you play with guys, and you get in a situation with girls, you think, ’Well, if I scored on that guy, I know I can score on her.’”

The six-foot Swoopes was widely recruited by colleges, including the high-profile University of Texas at Austin. “Texas was the only school I really considered out of high school. “Swoopes told the Los Angeles Times. “It was a big national basketball power, and I thought they could take my game to another level. But once I got there ... well, I just didn’t realize how far it was from home.” Austin is 400 miles from Brownfield, and the moment Swoopes arrived on her new campus she began to feel the distance acutely. After four days she relinquished her full scholarship and returned to her mother. Ignoring the suggestions that she had ruined her career, she enrolled in South Plains Junior College in Levelland, a school within easy driving distance of Brownfield. That institution was glad to have her, especially when she was named National Junior College Player of the Year after her second season.

Making a Mark in the NCAA

In 1991 Swoopes enrolled at Texas Tech University in Lubbock. Still close to home, she nevertheless found a coach and a program that could put her amazing skills to use. With Swoopes’s help, the Lady Raiders finally moved out of the shadow of the University of Texas Lady Longhorns, winning back-to-back Southwest Conference titles. Swoopes’s coach at Texas Tech, Marsha Sharp, told Sports Illustrated: “I can’t tell you what Sheryl has meant to this program. She’ll be a legend in women’s basketball, but not just because of her play. She has a charisma that the crowd loves. You never doubt that she is a team player.”

Swoopes’s teammates and coach might have considered her a “team player,” but their opponents usually came off the court viewing the Brownfield native as a one-woman wrecking crew. Fourteen times over two seasons at Texas Tech she scored 30 or more points in a game. In her senior season she averaged 27.4 points and 9.3 rebounds per game as the Lady Raiders compiled a 31-3 record, including a national championship. Facing the University of Texas at Austin in the Southwest Conference final, she put a phenomenal 53 points on the board. As Swoopes herself observed to the Washington Post during those days, “At times, I get it in my mind that there is no way I can miss.”

That feeling of invincibility followed Swoopes to the NCAA tournament in 1993. There, in the semifinal match between Texas Tech and Vanderbilt University, she earned 31 points, 11 rebounds, and three steals as the Lady Raiders cruised to a 60-46 victory. Swarmed by reporters after the game, Swoopes predicted that she would play even better in the final, when Texas Tech would meet Ohio State University.

Her predictions proved true in dramatic fashion. As a nation watched, Swoopes and the Lady Raiders beat favored Ohio State in a close game, 84-82, before a sellout crowd at Atlanta’s Omni Arena. People had little to say about the final score, however. All anyone talked about was Swoopes’s personal performance—47 points, including 16 of 24 field goals, four three-point shots, and a perfect 11-for-11 from the free throw line. “I thought I should personally take control of the game,” she explained in the Washington Post. “I felt like I needed to score whenever I got [the ball].”

What Swoopes did in her evening at the Omni was break the old record for most points scored in an NCAA final game. The former record of 44 points had belonged for 20 years to Bill Walton, who had gone on from college to become a top-ranked NBA player. “I’ve been watching a lot of basketball over a lot of years, men and women, professional and amateur,” wrote Atlanta Journal and Constitution columnist Furman Bisher. “... I’ve never seen a player take over a game and keep it won for her team like Sheryl Swoopes took over for Texas Tech.” Coach Sharp was even more glowing in her appraisal of her star’s performance. “There are no words to explain what a great player Sheryl Swoopes is,” Sharp exclaimed in the Washington Post. “We are just pleased that she got to show the whole nation.”

Even the Ohio State coach graciously conceded that Swoopes could not be beaten. “You don’t really appreciate Sheryl Swoopes until you try and stop her,” Nancy Darsch commented in the Washington Post. “She’s an absolutely tremendous player. She showed why she’s national player of the year.”

Tough Times for a Female Pro

In the wake of the NCAA championship, Swoopes was endowed with almost every prestigious collegiate and amateur honor imaginable. She won both the Naismith and the Sullivan Awards, and she was named Sportswoman of the Year by the Women’s Sports Foundation. Sports apparel companies—most especially Nike—called about endorsement contracts. What Swoopes wanted to do most was play more basketball. She faced the grim reality that all American women basketball players must face: she would have to go abroad in order to turn pro. Her salary would probably be about a tenth of what her rookie male counterparts could draw from the NBA—and she would have to acclimate to a new culture, a new language, and a new home in another part of the world.

“People say, if you were a male, you would have gone in the [NBA draft] lottery,” Swoopes said in the Washington Post. “It’s really frustrating to think about it, to think that men have so many more opportunities than women. Going overseas and staying in the United States, those are just two totally different things. The NBA, you watch it on television all the time, but you don’t hear anything about women playing overseas, unless you know their college coaches and ask them how so and so is doing. It’s sad and frustrating.”

Nevertheless, Swoopes signed a contract to play basketball with Bari of the women’s Italian professional league. She appeared in only ten games before returning home to America, citing contract disputes, the language barrier, and culture shock as reasons for her quick exit. She had indeed faced the frustrations first-hand. “There I was, right after the championship game, still wanting to play,” she recalled in the Atlanta Journal and Constitution. “I wanted to play the next day.... On a scale of one to 10, I was at a 10. Then I went overseas, and I was at a one all of a sudden. It was a big drop. “She returned to Texas Tech, finished her degree requirements, played in pickup games, and did some volunteer coaching.

A Place on the National Team

Aware that her skills were eroding, Swoopes was relieved when she was invited to try out for the U.S. women’s national basketball team. Membership on the team—consisting of a core of America’s best female players—offered Swoopes the opportunity to play highly competitive basketball and to stay in the U.S. Her goal, of course, was to represent the U.S. at the 1996 Summer Games in Atlanta. “I almost go crazy thinking about going back to Atlanta for the Olympics,” she said in the Atlanta Journal and Constitution. “I can’t wait.”

Joining seasoned professionals such as Teresa Edwards and Lisa Leslie, Swoopes embarked on a busy schedule of exhibition games and appearances at such tournaments as the world championships and the Goodwill Games. Her salary as a Team U.S.A. member—estimated at $50,000—was regally supplemented by the introduction of a Nike “Air Swoopes” basketball shoe for women. Swoopes promoted the shoe—the first ever named for a woman athlete—in a high-profile commercial directed by Spike Lee, as well as by personal appearances across the country. Swoopes saw the publicity as a perfect vehicle to broaden the fan base for women’s basketball in America. “Our opportunity to change things for women’s basketball is now,” she claimed in the New York Times.

Swoopes might have been right on target, as usual. The NBA has endorsed the formation of an American women’s professional league, and she is assured a starring position on one of the teams. Fan support for a women’s league may hinge on the Olympic performance of the women’s national team, as well as upon the popularity of products the women basketball players have endorsed. As the new millennium approaches, Swoopes’s radiant personality and basketball talent could bring her the level of fame that attends some of the NBA’s male players—if not necessarily the extravagant salary. She has also expressed interest in coaching, and this too could provide her with a comfortable future. Rutgers University coach C. Vivian Stringer recently signed a contract that could pay as much as $300,000 per year—incentive enough for any former NCAA star.

All of the acclaim she has received has been a sweet surprise for Swoopes, the small-town Texas girl who grew up shooting hoops with her brothers. “I never in my wildest dreams thought I would have as many opportunities as I do to go out and do something with my life and actually make money so I can help the people who helped me,” she concluded in the Washington Post. “Coming from a town of 10,000, it’s really unbelievable. It’s like I’m in a big old dream.”