Player, Official

High School: Exeter, Class of 1978

College(s): University of Pittsburgh

Background: Dee Dee led her Exeter High School teams to the 1976 and 1977 Berks League titles while playing for Hall of Fame Coach Jean Frey. Her senior year team finished 29-3 and reached the Pennsylvania state quarterfinals. She played field hockey at the University of Pittsburgh and graduated with an engineering degree in 1982. After college, Dee worked as a sales engineer and began to officiate NCAA Division 1 women’s basketball games in 1984. She has worked over 22 NCAA Division 1 Women’s Final Fours including eight semifinals, and fourteen national championship games. She is unquestionably the greatest NCAA women’s basketball official in history. In 1997, Dee Kantner and Violet Palmer became the first two women hired to officiate games in the NBA. She worked in the NBA until 2002 and then in various capacities for the WNBA. She is currently the top-ranked NCAA Division 1 women’s’ basketball official having officiated the 2019 championship game. She was inducted into the North Carolina Sports HOF in 2019 and the Exeter High School Athletic HOF in 1991. She was inducted into the Berks County Chapter of the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame in 2015.