Skylar Diggins — Washington High School to the WNBA

born 1990 · born and raised in South Bend

The fame: Skylar Diggins was the face of Notre Dame women's basketball in its rise to the sport's summit — three consecutive Final Fours and two national championship games (2011–2013), departing as the program's career leader in points and steals — and then a first-rank professional: the third overall pick of the 2013 WNBA draft, a seven-time WNBA All-Star, four times an All-WNBA First Team selection, the league's Most Improved Player in 2014, and an Olympic gold medalist with the United States at the Tokyo Games. Her high school career was itself national news: four years at South Bend's Washington High School, a 102–7 team record, 2,790 points, a state championship in 2007, Indiana Miss Basketball, and the Naismith and Gatorade national player-of-the-year awards — a draw so large that her senior-year state championship game was moved to Indianapolis's Lucas Oil Stadium to hold the crowd. Her full playing record stands in the Sports record of this history.

The tie, exactly: Born and raised, and the city has put it in its own record. Skylar Kierra Diggins was born in South Bend on August 2, 1990, grew up in the city — her father directed a local recreation center, and she was in South Bend gyms, in her own telling, from the start — and played at Washington High School and then stayed home for Notre Dame. The South Bend Common Council's Special Resolution No. 4985-22 (2022) recites the two civic firsts: the first South Bend native selected in the first round of the WNBA draft, and the first South Bend native to win an Olympic gold medal in basketball. She is a living person, and this entry states only what the public record states.

Sources:

1. City of South Bend, Special Resolution No. 4985-22 — the birth, the Washington High School record and honors, the Notre Dame years, the draft and Olympic firsts.
2. WNBA and Notre Dame records — the three Final Fours, the career scoring and steals records, the third overall pick (2013), the All-Star selections.
3. Pollstar News, athlete profile (2026) — the South Bend gyms childhood, the Lucas Oil Stadium state-final crowd, the 2014 Most Improved Player award and All-WNBA First Team selections.