Northwestern University

| 

2022 Inductee

Diane Donnelly Stone’s determination helped her overcome two big challenges. “Being just over five feet tall, tennis was a sport I could play,” Diane says. “I became very consistent. Diane’s other big challenge: diabetes. Diagnosed with Type I diabetes at the age of six, she played her entire career with the disease — something few have done at the highest level of tennis. “My doctors said it was very important to be involved in sports so I could maintain a healthy lifestyle.”

Diane let nothing hold her back. She eventually committed to Northwestern University and led her team to two Big Ten titles. She and Katrina Adams captured the NCAA Doubles Championship — only the 2nd NCAA title for a Northwestern athlete and the first for a woman. Diane holds impressive records for Northwestern women’s tennis with a winning percentage of .935 in singles (1985) and the highest all-time winning percentage — 1.000 — in doubles in 1987 with Katrina Adams.

Diane was ranked as high as #5 in the NCAA singles and was a three-time All-American. After graduation, Diane played the WTA satellite circuit and won two ITF Challenger doubles titles and competed in the 1987 US Open doubles championships.

After retiring from the tennis tour, Diane began working for World Team Tennis as an Executive Assistant to Billie Jean King and continued in that role for 33 years. In 1998, Billie Jean, along with Diane and her sister Tracey, created an award which has given over $700,000 to student athletes who play tennis and have diabetes.

“My career has gone beyond anything I could have imagined,” says Diane. “And then to find out that I was being inducted into the Collegiate Tennis Hall of Fame was beyond all my dreams.”