Lobo is now a reporter and color analyst for ESPN, reporting on women's college basketball and WNBA games.
Rebecca Lobo returns an autographed basketball to Erann Forte, 11, of Kansas City, MO during induction festivities at the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2010.
WESTFIELD – Rebecca Lobo-Rushin, a native of Southwick, is being honored as this year’s Edwin Smith Family Distinguished Speaker by the Westfield Athenaeum.
Lobo-Rushin will be speaking about her college and professional basketball careers, including her career at the University of Connecticut, where she was the MVP for the 1995 NCAA champion Huskies, as well as the winner of the Naismith and College Player of the Year Award. She also won the prestigious Honda-Broderick Cup for 1994-95, presented to the athlete “most deserving of recognition as the Collegiate Woman Athlete of the Year.”
Lobo-Rushin went on to play in the WNBA from 1997 through 2003, where she was one of the most popular players in the league. She was selected to play on the inaugural WNBA All-Star team in 1999. She retired in 2003 and was inducted into the 2010 Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame.
Today, Lobo-Rushin is a reporter and color analyst for ESPN, reporting on women’s college basketball and WNBA games.
In 1996, Lobo-Rushin co-wrote a book with her now late mother, Ruth Ann Lobo, about her mother’s battle with breast cancer, called “The Home Team: Of Mothers, Daughters and American Champions.”
The Athenaeum is honoring Lobo-Rushin for accomplishments, both on and off the court. “We are proud to call her a native daughter of Western Massachusetts and privileged to be able to present our annual Distinguished Speaker award to her for 2012,” said librarian Christopher Lindquist.
Her talk will be preceded by a chili and beer-tasting reception sponsored by the Friends of the Westfield Athenaeum. Tickets are $25 and may be purchased at the main desk at the Athenaeum.
Soup’s On will be providing the chili, and the Westfield River Brewing Co. will be providing two kinds of specialty beers, Black Squirrel Ale and the 413 IPA. Lobo-Rushin will be appearing at the reception.
A limited number of “lecture only” tickets may be available on the day of the event, space permitting. For details, call (413) 568-7833.
For more information, call the Westfield Athenaeum, (413) 568-0638 or visit www.westath.org.