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It was a matter of transferring that aura over to women's basketball. "People have an idea of what the Big East is. Our job is to rekindle what people like about the old league. Being in New York [conference headquarters previously were in Providence, R.I.] has created a certain degree of toughness. It's a re-brand versus a new-brand opportunity." As Ackerman intimated, it hasn't exactly been the equivalent of a stroll through Central Park. "The hardest part of the job has been the start- up," she said. "We've had to start up this company from the ground. I came in without a staff. There's been a search for real estate and handling payroll. Hiring has been another level of time commitment and work effort. "That has been very challenging. I didn't have to worry about this at the WNBA because I had a larger staff. But under the circumstances, we've done as well as we can and can look ahead to next year. All in all, it's been a good year." The "good year" as Ackerman was quick to note, began in the fall. "A real point of satisfaction for our league was when Providence College won the NCAA wom- en's cross country title," she said. "That was a point of pride for Providence and our conference. "We just had a very successful men's basketball tournament at the Garden. People didn't know what to expect. But the kind of magic that tourna- ment was known for was revived." Magic was virtually an unknown commodity when it came to women's sports when Ackerman was at UVa. She enrolled there in 1977, seven years after the school had gone coed, and the women's basketball program was in its infancy. "From what I call tell, it's night and day," Acker- man said while contrasting UVa women's basket- ball in the late 1970s and the sport in the current era. "We were just getting off the ground. It was in an early stage in terms of scholarships, the treat- ment of female athletes, the method of travel, the number of teams and the quality of our apparel. "When I played, we only had one assistant coach. It was Debbie Ryan plus one. I credit peo- ple like Debbie, [former athletics director] Gene Corrigan, [current athletics director] Craig Lit- tlepage and [senior associate athletics director for programs] Jane Miller for moving it forward and bringing Virginia sports to where they are today. "For women athletes," Ackerman continued, "it's completely different." Ackerman credits two people with having a major influence on her career. "The first person I think of would be my coach, Debbie Ryan," she said. "She was a very influen- tial person in my life given all the time we spent together and the opportunity she afforded me to go there on a scholarship. She also was a pioneer in terms of elevating the program. "There also was Sybil Todd, who was the dean of students. She was my academic advisor and my counterpoint to everything I was doing there. She was very influential as I was trying to think about my post-graduate plans. "I wound up at UCLA law school, and she was a proponent of that and playing one year in Europe," Ackerman continued. "She was very respectful in terms of my academics and my ex- periences outside of sports." Those experiences helped Ackerman earn nu- merous accolades. In 1997, she received a UVa Distinguished Alumna Award. In 2011, she was inducted as a contributor into the Women's Bas- ketball Hall of Fame. And, one year later, she was named a "40 for 40" honoree by the Women's Sports Foundation in conjunction with the 40th anniversary of the passage of Title IX. She also has received the NCAA Silver Anni- versary Award and was named to the ACC's 50th Anniversary Women's Basketball Team, and was presented the Naismith Hall of Fame John Bunn Lifetime Achievement Award. ◆ i22-23.Val Ackerman.indd 3 4/2/14 9:31 AM