"New York Liberty" Rebecca Lobo Hand Signed 3X5 Card Todd Mueller COA

Description

Up for auction the
"New York Liberty" Rebecca Lobo Hand Signed 3X5 Card.
This item is authenticated by Todd Mueller Autographs and comes with their certificate of authenticity.
ES-2015
Rebecca Rose Lobo-Rushin
(born October 6, 1973) is an American television
basketball
analyst and former
women's basketball
player in the
Women's National Basketball Association
(WNBA) from 1997 to 2003. Lobo, at 6'4", played the
center
position for much of her career. Lobo played
college basketball
at the
University of Connecticut
, where she was a member of the team that won the
1995 national championship
, going 35–0 on the season in the process. Lobo was inducted into the
Women's Basketball Hall of Fame
in 2010. In April 2017, she was announced as one of the members of the 2017 class of the
Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame
, alongside
Tracy McGrady
and
Muffet McGraw
.
Lobo was born in
Hartford, Connecticut
, the youngest daughter of RuthAnn (née McLaughlin) and Dennis Joseph Lobo. Her father is of
Cuban
descent, while her mother was of
German
and
Irish
heritage. Lobo was raised a
Catholic
. Her brother Jason played basketball at
Dartmouth College
and her sister Rachel played basketball at Salem State College. Lobo's mother and father were both teachers; in addition, her father coached both basketball and track and field. Raised in
Southwick, Massachusetts
, Lobo was the state scoring record-holder with 2,740 points in her high school career for
Southwick-Tolland Regional High School
in
Massachusetts
. She held this record for 18 years until it was eclipsed by
Bilqis Abdul-Qaadir
of the new Leadership Charter School in Springfield on January 26, 2009. More than 100 colleges recruited Lobo, but she chose the
University of Connecticut
due to proximity and her belief in its academic excellence.
[6]
She helped lead the
Huskies
to the 1995
National Championship
with an undefeated 35-0 record. In her senior year, Lobo was the unanimous national player of the year, winning the 1995
Naismith College Player of the Year
award, the
Wade Trophy
, the
AP Player of the Year
award, the
USBWA Player of the Year
award, the
Honda Sports Award
for basketball, and the
WBCA Player of the Year
award. Lobo was awarded the prestigious
Honda-Broderick Cup
for 1994-95, presented to the athlete "most deserving of recognition as the Collegiate Woman Athlete of the Year".
She was a member of the inaugural class of inductees to the University of Connecticut women's basketball "Huskies of Honor" recognition program. Lobo was named the 1995 Sportswoman of the Year (in the team category) by the Women's Sports Foundation. Lobo was the first player in the Big East Conference ever to earn first team all American honors for both basketball and academics. Lobo was named to the USA U18 team (then called the Junior World Championship Qualifying Team) in 1992. The team competed in
Guanajuato, Mexico
in August 1992. The team won their first four games, then lost 80–70 to Brazil, finishing with the silver medal for the event, but qualifying for the 1993 world games. Lobo averaged 6.8 points per game during the event.
Lobo continued with the team to the 1993 U19 World Championship (then called the Junior World Championship). The team won five games and lost two, but that left them in seventh place. Lobo averaged 7.7 points per game and recorded six blocks, highest on the team.
In 1995 Lobo passed through tryouts to join the national team, which later became the US team for the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, GA. Though her minutes on the floor were few, Lobo shared in the gold medal. In 1997, the WNBA was formed and enjoyed its inaugural season, and Lobo was assigned to the
New York Liberty
during the league's first player allocations on January 22, 1997. The first season the Liberty fell to the Houston Comets in the WNBA Finals. Lobo suffered a setback in 1999, tearing her left
anterior cruciate ligament
and her meniscus in the first game of the season. In 1999, she was selected to the inaugural WNBA All Star team but could not play because of the injury.
[13]
In 2002, she was traded to the
Houston Comets
in exchange for Houston's second-round selection (26th overall) in the
2002 WNBA Draft
. The next season she was traded to the
Connecticut Sun
, where she retired in 2003. Lobo also played two seasons in the National Women's Basketball league with the Springfield Spirit 2002 through 2003.