ODU ALUMNA DONOVAN WINS WNBA TITLE

Anne Donovan, a 1983 graduate of Old Dominion University, Tuesday became the first female coach to win the championship of the Women's NBA.

Donovan's Seattle Storm defeated Connecticut, 74-60, in the final game of the league championship.

From 1979 to 1983, Donovan was the most dominant player in women's college basketball, leading the ODU Lady Monarchs to the NCAA Final Four in 1983 and earning the Naismith Player of the Year Award.

Donovan was named the Storm's coach in December 2002. Previously, she was the head coach of the league's Charlotte Sting, a team that, after only four short months, she transformed from last place into the Eastern Conference Champions.

Inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 1995, Donovan was a member of the gold medal winning 1984 and 1988 USA Olympic Teams, as well as the 1980 Olympic team, making her one of only four male or female USA players to have been named to three Olympic squads. Additionally, she still holds 25 Old Dominion records. She was a coach on the women's gold-medal team at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece.

After graduating with a Bachelor of Science in Recreation and Leisure, Donovan spent five seasons playing professionally in Japan and Italy before returning home to Old Dominion as an assistant coach for six years. She later served as head coach at East Carolina University and has held coaching positions with the WNBA's Indiana Fever and the American Basketball League's Philadelphia Rage.