USA BASKETBALL NEWS
Val Ackerman Honored As 2013 USA Basketball Edward S. Steitz Award Winner
of the Big East Conference and for- mer USA Basketball and WNBA president, Val Ackerman was selected by USA Basketball as the 2013 recipient of the Edward S. Steitz Award. The award recog- nizes an individual for outstanding contributions to international basketball. Ackerman received her award July 24 during the USA Basketball annual assembly in Las Vegas, Nev.
A The award is named in
memory of Edward S. Steitz, a longtime director of athletics at Springfield College, who was recognized worldwide as an authority on the rules of basketball. Steitz was an original architect and a past president (1969-74 and 1980-84) of USA Basketball predecessors, the Basketball Federation of the USA (BFUSA) and the Amateur Basketball Association of the United States of America (ABAUSA). Selected the first and still to date
only female president of USA Basketball, Ackerman was president for the 2005-08 quadrennium. Additionally, she has served on the International Basketball Federation’s (FIBA) Central Board since 2006. Ackerman, who on June 26, 2013,
was named commissioner of the then newly formed Big East Conference, also recently worked as a consultant to the NCAA championships staff and conducted a comprehensive assessment of the women’s basketball game.
“USA Basketball is proud to recog-
nize Val Ackerman for her tremendous contributions to USA Basketball for over two decades,” said Jim Tooley, USA Basketball CEO/Executive Director. “She has been a leader in the U.S. and international sports community, and I personally appreciate her support and involvement throughout the years.” A native of New Jersey, Ackerman
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Past USA Basketball president Russ Granik, Edward S. Steitz award recipient Val Ackerman, past USA Basketball president Tom Jernstedt, and USA Basketball CEO Jim Tooley.
graduated first in her class from Hopewell Valley Central High School in Hopewell Township, N.J., where she set the school’s then-record for points by any basketball player with 1,755, and the school’s career field hockey scoring record. She was inducted into the New Jersey Interscholastic Athletic Association Hall of Fame in 1997. A four-year starter, three-year
captain and an Academic All-American in 1978 and 1979 on the women’s basketball team at the University of Virginia, Ackerman graduated from Virginia in 1981. She also played professional basketball in France for one season.
After earning a law degree from the
University of California, Los Angeles, Ackerman worked for two years at the law firm of Simpson Thacker & Bartlett in New York. She took a position as a staff
attorney with the NBA in 1988, and went on to serve in the NBA as special assis- tant to David Stern, director of business affairs and vice president of business affairs before accepting the position of WNBA president on Aug. 7, 1996. Ackerman served in the position for
nine years (1996-2005) and stepped down on Feb. 1, 2005. She became the
n historic and success- ful sports executive, current Commissioner
first female to successfully launch and run a professional women’s sports league that lasted at least eight years, and recently completed its 17th season.
While at the NBA, Ackerman
also was an advocate for the his- toric 1995-96 USA Basketball Women’s Senior National Team that compiled an overall 60-0 record and won gold at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.
A member of the USA Basketball
Board of Directors starting in 1989, Ackerman was USA Basketball’s president from 2005-08. As president she oversaw the restructuring of the USA Basketball Board of Directors and gold medal performances by the men’s and women’s teams at the 2008
Olympics. Ackerman serves on the Naismith
Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame Board of Governors, the Board of Directors for the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame, the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics and the Board of Directors for the Virginia Athletics Foundation.
In 2008, she received the Inter-
national Olympic Committee’s Women of Distinction diploma and the John Bunn Lifetime Achievement award from the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. In 2011, she was inducted into the Women’s Basketball of Fame.
Some of her many awards and
recognitions include: The Sports Business Journal Champions Award, Brandweek Co-Marketer of the Year, the University of Virginia Distinguished Alumna Award, induction into the GTE Academic All-America Hall of Fame and International Scholar-Athlete Hall of Fame, the NCAA Silver Anniversary Award
Past recipients of the Edward S.
Steitz Award include: Clifford Fagan; Dave Gavitt; Russ Granik; Tom Jernstedt; George Killian; Jenaro “Tuto” Marchand; C.M. Newton; Lea Plarski; Borislav Stankovic; and William Wall.
USA Basketball News
Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE/Getty Images
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