Sheryl Swoopes

CTL-E-6863 · Person · other · contemporary

VERIFIED evidence grade — build store (JSON graph)

Combined Graph record U-07735 · provenance: build store (JSON graph), record CTL-E-6863.

Sheryl Denise Swoopes (born March 25, 1971, in Brownfield, Texas) is a guard-forward who led Texas Tech to the 1993 NCAA championship — scoring a record 47 points in the title game — and won three Olympic gold medals with the United States (1996, 2000, 2004). On October 23, 1996, Swoopes became the first player signed by the WNBA, ahead of the league's inaugural 1997 season — the claim supported here by the WNBA's own career timeline and by the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame. Assigned to the Houston Comets, she won the league's first four championships (1997–2000) and three WNBA Most Valuable Player awards, and was the first women's player to have a signature Nike shoe, the Air Swoopes. She later played for the Seattle Storm (2008) and Tulsa Shock (2011), and was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2016 and the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2017.

The record

• Also known as: Sheryl Denise Swoopes

Notes

Sports Encyclopedia roster CTL-SPE-0351. Firsts disposition: 'First player signed by the WNBA' ASSERTED — supported by the WNBA (career timeline, dated October 23, 1996) and the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame. Framing note: Swoopes was also presented with Lisa Leslie and Rebecca Lobo as the league's founding faces in April 1996; the asserted claim rests on the league timeline's dated first-signing statement. Curator's Judgment (DRAFT): The WNBA signed its best player first — an NCAA champion and Olympic gold medalist whose signature shoe preceded the league's first game. The signing order is a small fact that states the league's intentions plainly. Photo: CLEARED — File:Sheryl Swoopes WNBA.jpg, CC BY 2.0.

Sources

• WNBA. "Sheryl Swoopes Career Timeline." WNBA.com. Accessed 2026-11-03. https://www.wnba.com/news/sheryl-swoopes-career-timeline/ (primary source · build store)
• Women's Basketball Hall of Fame. "Sheryl Swoopes" (Class of 2017). WBHoF.com. Accessed 2026-11-03. https://www.wbhof.com/member/sheryl-swoopes (primary source · build store)

More person records

• Lena Marie Nunez Anaya
• Lena McLin
• Lena Waithe
• Lenny Kravitz
• Lenny Moore
• Lenny Wilkens

Browse the full directory: all entity records

Record CTL-E-6863 · Combined Graph record U-07735 · CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph · 2 sources.
Directory: all entity records · the knowledge graph

Researched and maintained by the CultureTechLens research program · CultureTechLens Combined Graph, Release 2026-11-04. Corrections are public: the corrections log.

Cite this record

Citation guidance for teachers, journalists, and funders: How to Cite Us.

From the Archive

The archive in pictures

The people, places, and institutions this work documents. Photographs from the CultureTechLens research record — rights-cleared, credited, and cited like everything else here.