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1997 – 2019
The player: Ruth Riley came to Notre Dame from Macy, a town of a few hundred people in north-central Indiana, and left as the most decorated player in the program's history to that point: 2,072 career points, the school's single-game scoring record of 41, and the 2001 sweep of the Naismith and Associated Press national player-of-the-year awards. She was drafted fifth overall in the 2001 WNBA draft by the Miami Sol.
The professional titles: With the Detroit Shock in 2003, Riley was named most valuable player of the WNBA Finals — making her one of only three players in the sport's history to be named most outstanding or valuable player of both the NCAA Final Four and the WNBA Finals, the college-and-professional double her 2001 and 2003 springs completed. She won a second WNBA championship with Detroit in 2006. In 2004, at Athens, she won an Olympic gold medal with the United States — the first Notre Dame women's player to win one.
The standing: Riley was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2019. In this section's accounting she holds a place no one has taken from her: the first of the program's four Olympic gold medalists, and, with Jackie Young after her, one of two Irish players to hold an NCAA championship, a WNBA championship and an Olympic gold medal.
Sources:
- University record book — Riley's career totals and records; the 2001 awards.
- WNBA and Women's Basketball Hall of Fame records — the 2001 draft (fifth overall, Miami Sol); the 2003 Finals MVP; the 2003 and 2006 Detroit championships; the 2004 Olympic gold; the 2019 Hall of Fame induction.