2008 Award Recipient: Anucha Browne Sanders

This year's Audrey P. Berkeley Spirit Award was presented to Anucha Browne Sanders.

To categorize Anucha Browne Sanders simply as a successful athlete turned successful business woman leaves so much of her life unsaid.   As a student at Northwestern University, she was a standout athlete whose leadership ability and rigorous work ethic would prove to be useful on and off the court and in her post collegiate career,  Browne Sanders was NU’s first All-American women’s basketball player women’s basketball player and set 24 school records. During her senior year, Browne Sanders became the first woman in NCAA history to tally six straight 30-plus-point performances. That same season saw her lead the nation in scoring (30.5 points per game),  capture the Big Ten Player of the Year honors for the second consecutive year and become the conference’s all-time leading scorer at that time with 2,307 points. She was named NU women's basketball player of the decade in 1992 when the school and Big Ten Conference celebrated the 10th anniversary of women's intercollegiate athletics and the following year, she was inducted into the Northwestern Wildcats Hall of Fame. 

After graduation, Browne Sanders continued to achieve success as she was named to the Sports Business Journal’s “Forty Under Forty” list in 2003, honoring the top 40 professionals in the sports field under 40 years old. She was also honored in 2002 by the Empire State Games as one of its top athletes of the first 25 years the competition has been in existence. She spent eleven years with IBM Corporation, serving in a number of roles, most recently as a program manager in IBM’s Worldwide Sports office. She also worked in the NBA from 2000-2006 and was one of the highest-ranking female executives in the organization. Browne Sanders made headlines after her stint in the NBA when she boldly took on her former employer in a male dominated arena for various gender injustices and won. 

Brown Sanders is also known for her worldwide philanthropic efforts.  She was honored with the 2004 Miracle Award by The Miracle Makers, a not-for-profit family and children’s services group in New York. Her philanthropic efforts have also taken her to southern Asia to assist the victims of the tsunami with their recovery and rebuilding efforts as part of a trip organized by Phillips Exeter Academy.

Equipped with a master’s degree in marketing communications from Florida State University, Anucha Browne Sanders currently works at the University at Buffalo as the Senior Associate Athletic Director for Marketing. She is responsible for the marketing of revenue sports while overseeing the ticket operations, promotions, and corporate sales efforts for the division of athletics. In her role, she is also the University’s Senior Woman Administrator responsible for oversight of gender equity issues within athletics.