UNCASVILLE – (Staff report with Official Big East News Release) – Former NBA executive and first President of the WNBA, former USA Basketball president and current Big East Conference Commissioner Val Ackerman will be inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as a member of its 2021 class this weekend in Springfield, Massachusetts. She will be inducted as a Contributor. Ackerman previously received the Hall of Fame’s John Bunn Lifetime Achievement Award in 2008.
The Class of 2021 enshrinement ceremony will be held on Saturday, September 11.
Villanova head coach Jay Wright is also a member of the 2021 Hall of Fame class. Other inductees of the 2021 class are: Rick Adelman, Chris Bosh, Yolanda Griffith, Lauren Jackson, Paul Pierce, Bill Russell, Ben Wallace, Chris Webber, Howard Garfinkel, Cotton Fitzsimmons, Clarence “Fats” Jenkins, Toni Kukoc, Bob Dandridge and Pearl Moore.
“I’m extremely honored by this recognition and will be forever grateful to David Stern and Russ Granik for opening doors for me and allowing me to be part of so many exciting moments in basketball history,” said Ackerman. “It’s been a tremendous privilege to lead the BIG EAST and build on its proud heritage these past eight years, and to be part of the class that includes Jay Wright makes this moment very hard to top.”
Ackerman was named the fifth Commissioner of the BIG EAST on June 26, 2013. She was the founding President of the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) and is a past President of USA Basketball, which oversees the U.S. men’s and women’s Olympic basketball program. Ackerman also served for two terms as the U.S. representative to the International Basketball Federation (FIBA). She has had a long and accomplished career in the sports industry and the distinction of serving in leadership positions in both men’s and women’s basketball at the collegiate, professional, national team and international levels.
Ackerman was named the first President of the WNBA in 1996 and oversaw the league’s day-to-day operations for its first eight seasons. During her tenure, the league expanded from 8 to 16 teams, drew broad national sponsor and network support, established women’s team sports attendance records and maintained successful player labor relations. Ackerman was inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in 2011 and received the Women’s Sports Foundation’s Billie Jean King Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016.
Ackerman served on the USA Basketball Board of Directors for 23 years, including as President for the 2005-08 term, which culminated with gold medals for the men’s and women’s teams at the Beijing Games. She served as a primary NBA liaison to USA Basketball in the early years of the “Dream Team” era and was the driving force behind the 10-month tour of the USA Basketball women’s national team that preceded the 1996 Olympics and set the stage for the launch of the WNBA. She received USA Basketball’s Ed Steitz Award for contributions to international basketball in 2008.
While at the helm of the BIG EAST, Ackerman has presided over the rebirth of the conference following its return in 2013 to its original basketball-centric configuration. She led the move of the conference office to its current location in New York City and has managed the BIG EAST’s fruitful partnerships with Fox Sports and Madison Square Garden, which has hosted the conference’s men’s basketball tournament since 1983. Ackerman led the negotiations that resulted in the return to the BIG EAST in 2020 of the University of Connecticut, one of the conference’s charter members. The BIG EAST has maintained its national successes in men’s basketball since reconfiguration, highlighted by multiple NCAA tournament bids and Villanova’s national titles in 2016 and 2018.
Prior to assuming her role with the BIG EAST, Ackerman a widely acclaimed, comprehensive white paper detailing growth strategies for women’s college basketball.
Ackerman attended Hopewell Valley Central High School in Pennington, New Jersey, where she remains the school’s all-time leading basketball scorer. She was among the first female athletics scholarship recipients at the University of Virginia, from which she graduated in 1981 with a B.A. in political and social thought. She was a four-year starter, three-time captain and two-time Academic All-American on the Cavaliers’ women’s basketball team. She was also the program’s first 1,000-point scorer and was named to the Atlantic Coast Conference’s 50th Anniversary Team in 2002. Ackerman received her law degree from UCLA in 1985.