Athletics University News

December 27, 2019 | Athletic Communications

Lobo Named Recipient of NCAA Silver Anniversary Award

The NCAA will recognize Lobo and the other honorees during the 2020 NCAA Convention on Jan. 22 in Anaheim, Calif.

Rebecca Lobo with her arms raised.

Rebecca Lobo celebrates a Husky win.

Former women’s basketball standout and current ESPN analyst and UConn Board of Trustees member Rebecca Lobo was named as one of six recipients of the 2020 NCAA Silver Anniversary Award.

The Silver Anniversary Award annually recognizes distinguished individuals on the 25th anniversary of the conclusion of their college athletics careers. Representatives of NCAA member schools and conferences, along with a panel of former student-athletes, select each year’s recipients.

Lobo is joined by Carla Ainsworth (Kenyon), Stewart Cink (Georgia Tech), Darren Eales (Brown), Jenny Thompson (Stanford) and Adam Vinatieri (South Dakota State). The NCAA will recognize the honorees at the Honors Celebration during the 2020 NCAA Convention on Jan. 22 in Anaheim, Calif.

Lobo led the Huskies to their first undefeated season and NCAA national championship (1995) and was recognized as the 1995 NCAA Final Four Most Outstanding Player. The two-year team captain and two-time Big East Conference Player of the Year also was a two-time consensus All-American.

Lobo earned unanimous 1995 Player of the Year accolades, including the Wade and Naismith trophies, the U.S. Basketball Writers Association and Associated Press Player of the Year awards, and the Honda Sports Award. She was named the 1995 AP Female Athlete of the Year, won the

ESPY Award for Outstanding Female Athlete, earned Academic All-America of the Year honors and was then named the NCAA Woman of the Year.

Lobo went on to play professionally in the WNBA from the league’s inception in 1997 through 2003. In 1996, she helped lead Team USA to a gold medal at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta.

She was inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in 2010 and the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2017.

Lobo, whose number was the first to be retired at UConn, has served on the Board of Trustees since 2004. She co-founded the RuthAnn and Rebecca Lobo Scholarship in allied health at UConn and remains involved with the Connecticut Sports Foundation, the Connecticut Breast Health Initiative and the Get in Touch Foundation.

Lobo currently works as on-air talent at ESPN, where she covers women’s basketball at all levels, including the NCAA Division I Women’s Final Four each year.