© Latinas in History 2008 |
LOBO, REBECCA ROSE (1973 )
My
parents never let their kids walk away from something because it was too hard,
she told People magazine. Lobo dreamed of playing professional basketball. A well
rounded young woman, Lobo played the saxophone in the high school band, but it
was her athletic abilities that brought her to the University of Connecticut where
she was affectionately knowned as Lobocop for her invincibility on
the court. She became Big East Conference Rookie of the Year in 1992, then became
the schools all-time leader. When she accepted the Big East Player of the
Year award for 1994, Lobo said, This is for my mother making public
the fact that her mother was fighting a battle with breast cancer. In 1996 Lobo
played on the gold-medal-winning team at the Summer Olympics in Atlanta. When
the Womens National Basketball Association was created in 1997, Lobo was
assigned to the New York Liberty as a forward. Traded to the Houston Comets in
2002, she retired in 2003. Through her foundation, she provides scholarship funds
for African American and Latino students majoring in a health related field.
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