Granby Resident, UConn Legend Joins Basketball's Elite

SPRINGFIELD, MA — Whenever she makes an appearance in her adopted home state of Connecticut, basketball legend Rebecca Lobo is accustomed to people approaching her with comments along the lines of, "Hi, I loved watching you play."

That happens nearly every place she goes in the Nutmeg State, with the notable exception being in her current hometown of Granby. Her late mother RuthAnn, was a teacher and guidance counselor in town for 35 years, and her dad, Dennis, has coached at the high school for more than 50 years, and recently had the school's track named in his honor.

"It's the coolest thing, if I'm out at the grocery store or someplace in Granby, people come up to me and say, 'I had your mom as a teacher,' 'I had your dad as a teacher or coach,' 'they had a profound impact on my life,' 'how's your dad doing?'," the former UConn and WNBA star said Thursday in an interview with Patch at the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, into which she was inducted Friday night.

"I love that my identity in the town that I live is still about my parents and my family and the impact they had on so many lives," Lobo said.

After shattering Massachusetts scholastic scoring records (female or male) with 2,710 points at Southwick-Tolland Regional High School, Lobo chose to attend UConn just as women's basketball was beginning to evolve into a program of national significance. (For the record, the driveway at her former high school is now called Rebecca Lobo Way).

In her senior year, 1995, the Huskies won their first national championship by posting a perfect 35-0 record, knocking off perennial powerhouse Tennessee both in the regular season and in the NCAA title contest. Among other accolades, Lobo was named national Player of the Year and the AP Female Athlete of the Year.

She won a gold medal as part of the U.S. Olympic women's basketball team in Atlanta in 1996, then became one of the most familiar faces in the newly-formed WNBA a year later.

After retiring as an active player in 2003, she has become an acclaimed television basketball analyst and was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2010, but most importantly, she and her husband, Steve Rushin, are loving parents of three daughters and a son.

Ironically, Lobo and Rushin held their wedding reception in 2003 on the Court of Dreams at the Hall of Fame, where she sat Thursday with the other 10 members of the Class of 2017.

She was presented into the Hall of Fame by longtime UConn head coach Geno Auriemma.

Upon his own induction into the Hall of Fame in 2006, Auriemma was asked which of his players should be elected alongside him. The first name he mentioned was Lobo.

Asked a similar question by Patch Thursday, Lobo responded, "There will be a lot of UConn players here someday, but the one person who to me deserves it is (associate head coach) Chris Dailey. That UConn program is because of Geno Auriemma and Chris Dailey. I don't know if associate head coaches will ever get that kind of recognition, but it would be very much deserved if it ever does happen. I loved being recruited by Chris Dailey. She has her fingerprints all over that program and who these women become after they leave. What she does there is very significant."

Photo credit: Tim Jensen