Photo courtesy of Ruth Riley
By Kim Constantinesco
Olympic gold medalist and former WNBA star Ruth Riley grew up in rural Indiana. Basketball is a way of life there, and if you need visual confirmation, drive down any road and you’re guaranteed to see just as many basketball hoops attached to barns as there are haystacks.
The recently retired 13-year WNBA veteran grew up under a single mother, who struggled to put food on the table to feed Ruth, and her older sister and younger brother. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches were staples at the dinner table.
“I remember being in second grade and handing a ticket over at the school lunch counter,” Ruth said in a No Kid Hungry article. “I was embarrassed because I knew it made me different from the other kids. Over the course of grade school, middle school and high school, I participated on-and-off in free and reduced lunch programs that ensured I had a healthy meal comprised of the five food groups.”
A mother of three, who lost one children, is given a net for the first time. Photo: Ruth Riley
Thanks to in part the lunch programs, Ruth grew to 6’5″.
“That’s part of my personal story growing up,” Ruth told Purpose 2 Play. “Most Americans don’t know that one-in-four kids go hungry in the United States.”
Ruth works with No Kid Hungry here in the United States, but she also travels to Africa regularly to help out there as well.
“I go to this part of the world that most people associate with hunger and poverty, but also I see how it is here in the U.S.,” Ruth said.
Ruth started going to Africa in 2006 with a trip to Kenya to lead basketball and life skills clinics. The first basketball court that she saw there was less than ideal by her standards, but it didn’t make a difference in the eyes of the children.
“The court was broken down, the rim was crooked, there was literally cattle walking across the court,” Ruth said. “I have seen a lot of different courts, but this was truly something that I had never seen before. The kids were excited that somebody was going to come and teach them and they were just really eager to learn. Once you understand what the hardships are that they face, you can see how just spending a few hours playing the sport they love was huge for them. They were learning so many new things that were just basic for us, it was a big deal. It was a refreshing change to see the sport through their eyes.”
The shortlist of those hardships include disease, poverty, rape, and domestic violence.
It’s a far cry from where Ruth had traveled before that. As part of the national championship team at Notre Dame in 2001, she moved on to the professional level when she was drafted 5th overall by the Miami Sol. She won two WNBA championships with the Detroit Shock (2003 & 2006), and she was a member of the gold medal team at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece.
While in Kenya, Ruth said that she had the opportunity to interact with a lot of the women and little girls there.
Photo courtesy of Ruth Riley
“Just hearing those stories really opened my eyes,” Ruth said.
In 2007, Ruth started Inspire Transformation, which uses sports and other comprehensive approaches to promote healthy relationships within the community.
Basketball acts as a vehicle that way.
“The kids learn how to work together and they understand how to respect authority,” Ruth said of the benefits sports provide. “The have a task and accomplish it. To come in and have someone actually believe in you and encourage you, that means a lot to them.”
Next month, Ruth is going to the Democratic Republic of Congo, which is a country that she hasn’t been to yet. It will be roughly the tenth time that she’s been to Africa.
“I think my purpose is to use my skills, talents, and abilities to positively impact the lives of others,” Ruth said.
Along with going back to Notre Dame to work on her MBA, Ruth will be spending more time as an NBA/WNBA Cares Ambassador. Who says retirement is all lounge chairs and umbrella adorned drinks?
