She easily could have been one of the stars of women's basketball, but instead, Robin Roberts captures the hearts of America's sports fans doing exactly what she always wanted to do -- major league sports broadcasting.

She's an "encyclopedia" of today's popular sports and routinely covers the big leagues: tennis at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open, NFL football, NBA basketball, women's college and professional basketball, to name a few. Demonstrating the importance she puts on education, she also has hosted the Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee.

Roberts herself is in the major leagues of sports broadcasting. She won the first of her two Emmy Awards for her 1992 documentary entitled, "Outside the Lines: Portraits in Black and White," in which she examines racism in sports, She also is acutely aware of sexism in sports and often tells young women who want her job, "aim to be my boss; we need more women and minorities in the senior management ranks."

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