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Baseball Reference Player Spotlights

Sixteen-year-old Eri Yoshida became the first woman to be drafted by a Japanese men’s baseball team when she was selected out of high school in 2008. Her calling card was a self-taught knuckleball - a pitch she was inspired to learn after watching videos of Tim Wakefield. After a year playing professionally in Japan with the Kobe 9 Cruise, Yoshida, who stands at just 5 foot 1, spent several seasons pitching in independent leagues in the U.S. She was recognized by the Hall of Fame as the first woman to pitch professionally in multiple countries.

Ila Borders’ baseball career was full of firsts. She was the first woman to gain a college scholarship to play on a men’s baseball team, and the first woman to win a game in college. After she made the roster of the independent league St. Paul Saints in 1997, she became the first woman to play in the men’s professional game since the 1950s. The following year she started eight games for the Duluth-Superior Dukes and earned her first professional win. Borders spent two more seasons pitching in indy ball. She later penned the memoir Making My Pitch.

At the age of ten, Edith Houghton (1912-2013) was the starting shortstop on the Philadelphia Bobbies, a semi-professional women’s team that later toured Japan. During World War Two, Houghton enlisted in the women’s branch of the U.S. Naval Reserve, and played on several military baseball teams. After the war she secured a job as a scout for the Philadelphia Phillies, becoming one of the first women to scout for a major league team. She remained in the role until 1951, when she was called up to serve in the Korean War. No major league club hired another full-time female scout until 2015.

Effa Manley is the only woman inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame to date. She and her husband Abe co-owned the Newark Eagles; although, Effa took on most of the day-to-day management such as contracts and organizing travel. The Manleys were rewarded on the field with a 1946 World Series victory over the Kansas City Monarchs. Effa later was a pivotal figure in ensuring Negro League teams would be compensated for players signed to AL and NL squads.

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Basketball Reference Player Spotlights

Lusia Harris was the first and only woman to be officially drafted by an NBA team, when the New Orleans Jazz selected her in the seventh round in 1977. She never tried out for the team, however, because she was pregnant at the time. Prior to that distinction, Harris led Delta State University to three straight national collegiate titles in the 1970s and won a silver medal at the 1976 Olympics. She was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1992, and was the first Black woman to earn that honor. Harris recently passed away at the age of 66.

Cheryl Miller is one of the most decorated players in the history of women’s basketball. After a successful high school career that saw her lead her team to a 132-4 record over four years, Miller attended the University of Southern California in 1982. At USC, she led the Trojans to back-to-back NCAA championships in 1983 and 1984, taking home tournament MVP honors in both years. During her collegiate career, she was a four-time All-American, a three-time Naismith College Player of the Year, and was named by Sports Illustrated as the best player in college basketball as a senior. At the 1984 Summer Olympics, Miller was instrumental in leading Team USA to a gold medal. She has been inducted into three different Halls of Fame—the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame, and the FIBA Hall of Fame.

A WNBA Hall of Famer, Tamika Catchings played her 15-year career with the Indiana Fever. After being the 3rd overall pick in the 2001 draft out of Tennessee, Catchings would go on to win a WNBA championship in 2012. She was also a WNBA MVP and Finals MVP. She is a 5-time Defensive Player of the Year and four-time Olympic gold medalist.

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Nicknamed the “White Mamba” by Kobe Bryant himself, Diana Taurasi is regarded as one of the best female basketball players of all time. She is a 3-time WNBA champion, 5-time Olympic gold medalist, A WNBA MVP, and a 2-time WNBA Finals MVP. In 2011, she was voted by fans as one of the WNBA's Top 15 Players of All Time. In addition, she is the WNBA’s all-time leading scorer as she became the first player to surpass 9000 points.

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Ann Meyers, a member of the 1993 Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame class, was a trailblazer in women’s basketball. She was the first woman to receive a full athletic scholarship to UCLA, and was the first four-time women’s basketball All-American. After graduation, she became the first woman drafted into the Women's Basketball League (WBL), earning co-MVP honors as a rookie. Meyers also made history by becoming the first female player to sign an NBA contract and try out with an NBA team, when she signed as a free agent with the Indiana Pacers in 1979. She is a vice president for the Phoenix Mercuy and serves as a color analyst for the Phoenix Suns broadcasts.

When Hammon was hired at the San Antonio Spurs in 2014, she became the first full-time female assistant coach in any of the four major North American pro sports leagues. She is now heading into her third season as the head coach of the WNBA’s Las Vegas Aces. Hammon, who set numerous career school records at Colorado State University, went on to play 16 seasons in the WNBA for the New York Liberty and San Antonio Silver Stars. She was a six-time WNBA All-Star and had her number retired by the Stars in 2016. Hammon, who was born and raised in South Dakota, became a naturalized Russian citizen in 2008 and earned a bronze medal with the country at the 2008 Olympics.

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During her collegiate career, Nancy Lieberman led Old Dominion to back-to-back national championships in 1979 and 1980, earning the nickname "Lady Magic" for her similarities to Magic Johnson. Following her college career, she played in the WPBL and the WABA, and in 1981, made history by suiting up for the Los Angeles Lakers Summer League team. In 1997, she came out of retirement at age 39 to play for the Phoenix Mercury in the WNBA's inaugural season, and the following season, was named as the head coach and general manager of the Detroit Shock. At age 50, Lieberman became the oldest player to play in a game in the history of the WNBA when, in 2008, she recorded two assists in one game for the Shock. She would later go on to become head coach of the NBA G-League's Texas Legends, the first time a woman held the position on a men’s professional basketball team.

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Carol Blazejowski is widely considered one of the greatest scorers in the history of women's basketball. She played her collegiate career at Montclair State University and put up staggering numbers, averaging 34.0 points per game during her junior season and 38.6 as a senior—leading the nation in scoring both years. After her playing career, Blazejowski would go on to serve as general manager, and later president, of the New York Liberty in the WNBA. She has been inducted as a member of both the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame and the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

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FBRef-Spotlights

The most successful soccer player to ever play for Canada, Christine Sinclair is a woman’s sports icon. After becoming a 4-time All-American while attending the University of Portland, she set the NCAA D1 record with 39 goals in a season. She would score 187 career goals for the Canadian National Team while playing 300 international career matches. She has two bronze and a gold medal from the Olympic Games and was selected as Canada’s Female Player of the Year 14 times and player of the decade.

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Known for being one of the greatest strikers in the sport's history, 27-year-old Vivianne Miedema has scored more goals for the Netherlands than any other player, both on the men’s and women’s teams. In 2020 she was crowned the Women's Player of the Year by England's Football Writers' Association and BBC Women's Footballer of the Year in 2021. She is also the all-time leading scorer of the FA Women's Super League.

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Saki Kumagai is one of the most decorated female footballers in the world. As a 20-year-old she started all six of Japan’s games at the 2011 World Cup, a tournament that ended in glory after she scored the winning penalty in the shootout vs the United States. At club level, Kumagai was a key part of the Olympique Lyonnais team that dominated European football in the 2010s. The defensive midfielder won seven consecutive league titles with Lyon between the 2013-14 and 2019-20 seasons, in addition to five consecutive Champions League titles and six Coupes de France. She was the only Asian representative in the IFFHS’s team of the decade (2011-2020).

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Sam Kerr is one of the most feared strikers in modern soccer. In addition to being Australia’s all-time top goalscorer, she has topped the scoring charts six times in domestic leagues across three different countries. Kerr was a two-time MVP in the U.S. National Women's Soccer League and a two-time recipient of the Julie Dolan Medal (the MVP equivalent for the top tier of Australian women’s soccer) before she joined Chelsea in England Women’s Super League. In 2020-21, her first full season in England, her goals led Chelsea to an unprecedented quadruple of domestic trophies. In 2019 Kerr was named the best female footballer in the world by The Guardian.

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After helping lead the USWNT to a gold medal at the 2012 Summer Olympics, Rapinoe was an instrumental player in back-to-back World Cup championships for the USWNT in 2015 and 2019, captaining the squad to victory in the latter, scoring six goals in five matches, including the game-winner in the World Cup Final against the Netherlands. Her success in 2019 earned her a number of accolades including the 2019 Ballon d'Or Féminin as well as recognition from FIFA as The Best Women's Player of 2019. In addition to her brilliance on the pitch, Rapinoe's activism off of it has been another area in which she has shined, advocating for LGBTQIA+ rights as well as equal pay for the USWNT.

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Jamaica’s all-time top goalscorer Khadija “Bunny” Shaw has battled personal tragedy, including the loss of four of her brothers, on the way to becoming one of the top players in women’s football. Shaw grew up in Spanish Town, Jamaica, and progressed through the national youth teams before leaving to study and play soccer in the United States. She attended Eastern Florida State and then the University of Tennessee where, in 2018, she was named the SEC Offensive Player of the Year while simultaneously helping the Jamaican women’s team qualify for their first World Cup. A move to Bordeaux of France's Division 1 Féminine followed, and in 2020-21 she finished as the league’s top scorer. Shaw now plays for Manchester City, where she has become a fan favorite.

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CFB-Spotlights

On September 12, 2015, April Goss became the second woman to score a point in an FBS game when she kicked an extra point for Kent State in a game against Delaware State. After kicking for two years at Hopewell High School in western Pennsylvania, Goss joined the Kent State football team as a walk-on in the spring of 2012 and made her only regular-season appearance in that game in 2015. After graduating from Kent State, Goss earned a Master’s in Education from Clemson University in 2018.

In November 2020, just six days after backstopping Vanderbilt's soccer team to a conference title, goalkeeper Sarah Fuller was making history as the first woman to play for a Power Five Conference college football team. When Vanderbilt's football roster was decimated as a result of COVID-19 contact tracing, Fuller stepped up serving as the team's placekicker for two games. In her second appearance, she became the first woman to score for a Power Five Conference team, notching two extra points. In recognition of her achievements, Fuller was named SEC Co-Special Teams Player of the Week and her jersey was sent to the College Football Hall of Fame.

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Hockey Reference Player Spotlights

Cammi Granato is one of the most successful and prominent women’s hockey players, having been inducted into the International Hockey Hall of Fame (2008), the US Hockey Hall of Fame (2009) and the Hockey Hall of Fame (2010). She played in every IIHF Women's World Championship from 1990 to 2005, and was a captain on the U.S. team that won gold in the 1998 Olympics and silver in the 2002 Olympics. She is the national team’s all-time leading scorer with 343 points (186 goals, 157 assists). Granato was recently named assistant general manager of the Vancouver Canucks. She is the the third woman to serve as an assistant GM in NHL history.

Manon Rhéaume is best known as the first woman to play in any of the major professional North American sports leagues when she suited up as a goalie for the Tampa Bay Lightning in a preseason game on September 23, 1992. Although she never played in a regular season NHL game, she did appear in 25 games for several men’s minor-league teams in the IHL, ECHL and WCHL. Rhéaume also played on the Canadian women’s national hockey team, winning gold medals at the IIHF Women's World Championship in 1992 and 1994, and earning a silver medal in the 1998 Olympics. Most recently, she participated in the 2022 NHL All-Star game's Breakaway Challenge as a goaltender.

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