Sweat Equality

As a four-year starter on coach Debbie Ryan’s first Cavalier women’s basketball teams, Val Ackerman (Interdisciplinary ’81) helped bring the program to national prominence, blazing a trail for future Wahoo women. Today, as president of the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA), she continues to expand opportunities for female athletes.

After U.Va., Ackerman played pro basketball in France for a year, earned her law degree from UCLA, worked briefly for a law firm, and then joined the NBA in 1988. As Vice President of Business Affairs, she developed a partnership between the NBA and USA Basketball, resulting in the Women’s Dream Team that won the Olympic gold medal in 1996. NBA Commissioner David Stern chose Ackerman to spearhead the launch of the WNBA the same year.

Since then, the WNBA has doubled from eight to 16 teams and expanded its schedule of games. Three national networks cover the league, and 15 national marketing partners share its success. “The league has made a huge impact,” Ackerman said. “We have really redefined not only women’s basketball, but women’s sports.”

Ackerman has bold ambitions for the WNBA. “Ultimately, I see us being the fifth major league with the NFL, NBA, Major League Baseball, and the NHL,” she said. “We’re positioned to be in that echelon.”

Women’s sports have come a long way since Ackerman arrived on Grounds in 1977 with one half of an athletic scholarship. A teammate from New Jersey got the other half. “I got tuition, she got room and board,” she joked. “I went to class, she got to eat.”

Ackerman and her U.Va. teammates played in the shadows of their male counterparts, including the legendary Jeff Jones (Psychology ’82) , Jeff Lamp (Psychology ’85), Ralph Sampson (Rhetoric & Communication Studies ’83), and Othell Wilson (Psychology ’84). “We played for tiny crowds,” Ackerman said, “but they were better if we played a doubleheader. People would come early to get good seats for the men’s game.”

But things improved. “It was very satisfying to be part of the progress, year by year. We even flew to a game my last year.” By her second year, she had a full scholarship; by her last year, the whole team did. With more scholarships came better players, more wins and more media attention. “A lot of credit goes to Debbie Ryan and [former Athletic Director] Gene Corrigan,” Ackerman said.

Her excellence was as evident in the classroom as on the court. “It was an honor to be a student-athlete at Virginia,” she said. A recipient of the Jettie Hill Award for the highest GPA among Cavalier women athletes, she was twice named an Academic All-American. She was also selected to live on the Lawn.

At U.Va. Ackerman crafted an interdisciplinary studies degree focusing on political and social thought, and wrote her required thesis on the role of sports in society. Twenty years later, she is helping redefine that role with the success of the WNBA. And along with society’s growing interest in women’s sports has come expanded opportunities for female athletes, both young and old. “Now we have sports leagues for my two daughters,” she said. “Parents are recognizing that sweat has nothing to do with gender. That’s appropriate.”