Patricia Ann Meyers, matriarch of a single of SoCal's most prolific sporting activities people, dies

Ann Meyers may well in no way have gotten to enjoy with the boys ended up it not for her mother.

When she was in fifth quality, the precocious basketball player who would go on to star at UCLA ahead of acquiring a tryout with the NBA’s Indiana Pacers needed to engage in on an soon after-school team with her male classmates.

It wasn’t as uncomplicated as displaying up and displaying off her several skills. Ann wanted her mother, Patricia Ann, and her father, Bob, to go to the college board to get approval via the neighborhood mother or father-trainer association for what was then thought of a novel thought.

“It was just terrific owning moms and dads that supported their daughters and sons competing in athletics,” Ann reported.

Patricia Ann did a lot of cheering about the yrs. Her son Mark went to UC Berkeley on a soccer scholarship. Her son Dave gained a national championship with coach John Wooden’s closing UCLA group before investing 5 several years in the NBA. Her daughter Patty, whom Ann referred to as almost certainly the ideal athlete in the relatives, gained a nationwide basketball title at Cal State Fullerton right before heading on to enjoy expert softball.

The matriarch of one of Southern California’s most prolific sporting activities family members, Patricia Ann died Sept. 25 from pure will cause even though surrounded by spouse and children in her Laguna Niguel household. She was 96.

A lifelong volunteer, Patricia Ann washed and ironed linens for her regional church, Our Girl of Guadalupe, and devoted time to Foods on Wheels twice a week. The town of La Habra regarded her with a luncheon in 2015 for her extra than 50 many years of enriching others’ lives.

Born Dec. 13, 1925, in Wauwatosa, Wis., Patricia Ann Burke was the 3rd of eight small children. At 5, she missing her mom due to the fact of difficulties from childbirth, forcing her to build resilience in her youth. She enlisted in the U.S. Nursing Corps at Marquette College, where by she achieved a stage guard on the basketball group. They married in December 1946.

The household was constantly on the shift even though raising its developing brood of 11 children, likely from Issue Loma to Wheaton, Sick., ahead of coming back to California and setting up home in a two-tale household in La Habra.

It was there that Bob would place chairs in the residing room and have his young children pivot and shift all-around them as if they have been defenders. Ann when broke her ankle jumping off the prime of the stairs although hoping to match the leap of her brother Dave, who later recruited her to abide by him to UCLA.

Three a long time right after Dave’s Bruins gained the national championship at the San Diego Athletics Arena in what amounted to a homecoming for the spouse and children, Ann’s workforce won the 1978 Assn. for Intercollegiate Athletics for Ladies nationwide title. She would afterwards marry Dodgers legend Don Drysdale, turning out to be Ann Meyers Drysdale.

Broadly hailed for her kindness and generosity, Patricia Ann on a regular basis hosted bridge luncheons and flew to Milwaukee for reunions with her nursing close friends.

She is survived by 7 of her youngsters — Mark Meyers, Catherine Meyers, Ann Meyers Drysdale, Jeffrey Meyers, Susan Meyers, Coleen Lindsey and Robert Meyers Jr. — as nicely as 19 grandchildren and 13 excellent-grandchildren. Funeral expert services will be held at Our Lady of Guadalupe in La Habra at 10 a.m. on Nov. 11.