Pamela Wheeler ’89

On working in a man's world and rooting for women's basketball

"I'm not the kind of person whoturns away from a challenge. I'm the kind who fights back. I went off to Dartmouth from Texas thinking, 'Hey, I'm on my way to New Hampshire, where we'll have a lot of fun.' Right after I arrived there was the destruction of the anti-apartheid shanties that had been built on the Green. It made me get involved in campus groups."

"When people hear I told my dad as a 6-year-old that I'd be a sports lawyer and actually became one, it's a big thing for them. They say, 'You're the only person I know who's living her dream.'I never think of it that way, but it really is a blessing."

"When I represented a fairly high-profile baseball player,people thought I was his girlfriend. We made a trip to Minneapolis for a deal I'd negotiated for him and I couldn't figure out why they were calling around trying to find someone to take me shopping."

"I'm glad to have worked in a man's world; otherwise I wouldn't have encountered as much opposition. I'm probably stronger than I would have been without that."

"When I heard the job I have now was being created I was like a crazy woman. I called and wrote everyone I knew who knew [my current boss] Billy Hunter. I'm sure he thought I was a stalker. I thought, 'That's my job. I've got to have it.'"

"The most difficult part of working with WNBA players isn't conflict with the players, it's with the whole idea of women's I professional sports still being so new. There's always that question: 'Will it last?'"

"I've never heard a WNBA player compare her salary or herself to an NBA player. The women want to be valued for what they do. That doesn't mean they can't applaud NBA players."

"A major challenge is getting people to make not just an emotional but an economic commitment. Alot of people tell me how great the WNBA is but when I ask if they've ever bought a ticket, they hem and haw."

"I gave up basketball after high school because I couldn't seea future in it for women. Now parents think, 'Just maybe there's a future in trucking my girls around to games.' Last year's class of draftees was the first that went to high school knowing there is a league for them to play in. That completely changes the dynamic."

"Favorite players? I love them all. They're sophisticated, intelligent women with varied backgrounds and outside careers who have a genuine concern for where their sport is going. We've got several attorneys in the league and several working on their M.B.A.s."

"You go into collective bargaining wanting the sun, the moonand the stars. You have to feel good if you walk out with a star."

"Free agency is good for players, teams and fans. Without it you have dynasties that dominate sports for years. Players spending their careers with one team is great for the cities that have the dynasties but not so good for everyone else."

"I don't know what The Boss was thinking when he letPedro go to the Mets."

"Seeing myself on the cover of Sports Illustrated wasa pretty big thrill—not just being on the list but being on the cover! I tried to keep it in perspective."

"I've always considered my Dartmouth experience the foundation for a lot of my social values."

"Even though I work with women, I still need myown circle of women friends to talk things overwith. My friends from Dartmouth are still very important to me. I even married by best friend's brother-in-law!"

"My husband feels like he's died andgone to heaven being married to sucha sports fan- I especially love the Yankees and the Dallas Cowboys. I'm as much of a channel surfer as he is. Of course we have the NFL cable package. The only problem is that he's not into baseball. I'm working on that."

EDUCATION: A.8., history and religion; J.D., Boston University Law School, 1995 CAREER: Director of operations for the Women's National Basketball Players Association, New York City, 1999-present; director of business development, Continental Basketball Association, Phoenix, Arizona, 1997-1999; general counsel and marketing manager, Bob Woolf Associates, Boston, 1995-1997 NOTABLE ACHIEVEMENTS: Named by Sports Illustrated as one of the 100 most powerful minorities in sports, May 2003 PERSONAL: Married Charles Streeter Jr., July 2004