Danyelle Musselman remembers exactly where she was when she got the call that her mother, Theresa Cruz, had cancer. She was 30 years old, sitting on the couch, looking out the window of her apartment in Los Angeles.
"I remember everything about that moment," she says. "It's one of those things, where time almost stops."
Musselman would go home off and on throughout the next few months to be there whenever her mom had surgery, often sleeping on the floor of her hospital room. In the end, Cruz had a double mastectomy and chemotherapy, but no radiation.
"I would be there for some things, like her surgery, and then I had to go back to work," Musselman says. "It's hard to be across the country when your mom is going through something like that. So I stayed in constant contact with her."
Cruz has been in remission now for more than 15 years, and Musselman is incredibly grateful for that. Given her family's experience with cancer, she knows all too well that good outcomes are not guaranteed and seeks to help others going through similar trials.
She will chair the second Suits and Sneakers Gala for the American Cancer Society on Oct. 14 at the Fayetteville Town Center. Its theme is "1994," taking guests back to the start of that year's storied March Madness. Fitting, given that her husband is Eric Musselman, head coach for the Arkansas Razorbacks basketball team.
The event has been sold out for months, and most of the money raised will go toward efforts battling pediatric cancer.
Last year's inaugural event brought in more than $300,000, and funds were dedicated toward transportation and lodging access, the biggest barriers to people getting diagnosed, says Catherine Tapp, Associate Director for the American Cancer Society. Hope Cancer Resources received $50,000 for transportation grants to cancer patients.
"It touches my heart so much," Theresa Cruz says of Danyelle crafting a gala in her honor. "She loves to do it, and she's so good at it. It's amazing to see how she pulls it all together and gets all these people to help. They're so grateful and eager to pitch in."
Suits and Sneakers 2022 is expected to bring in $500,000.
MAKING AN EVENT GREAT
"The thing about having a really successful event is that you really have to top yourself every single year," Musselman says. The Razorbacks men's basketball team "went to the Final Four both years, in 1994 and 1995, so the theme is a nod to the National Championship."
Everything will have a vintage vibe, from the theme to the music selection, she says. Musselman reached out to several of the Razorback players from that '94 team to invite them to attend the event, too.
When beginning to plan Suits and Sneakers, the one word that kept rising to the top of Musselman's mind was that she wanted it to be "fun" -- something to look forward to. This year's event will have a red carpet experience, music by DJ Ty Walker and Hogtoons (the official DJ for the Razorbacks), and Hog Pen artists are doing sketches for VIPs.
Danyelle's sister-in-law Nicole Musselman will play a role in Suits and Sneakers by bringing her fashion and sneaker company in for a pop-up. Nicole's line of sneakers is called "339" after "33.9," the book that her dad, Bill Musselman, wrote about the nation's No. 1 defense in basketball.
"Danyelle is very accomplished in her own right," Nicole Musselman says. "She's a great wife, but also a very independent spirit, a role model for women and working moms, and to me, that is the magic ingredient as I watch her. She has such strength as a woman, compassionate and loving as a mom, wife, sister, friend ... she's really able to wear all those hats and do it so well."
Nicole Musselman says Danyelle's greatest strength is her core belief in maintaining a positive attitude no matter how life unfolds. It shows her tendency toward a growth mindset, something that is important to the Musselman family.
After some years of knowing each other and seeing Danyelle Musselman interact with people all over Northwest Arkansas, Cancer Society spokeswoman Tapp appreciates her gracious demeanor -- always willing to stop and have a conversation with someone or agree to a photo any time they're out in public.
"She's so genuine," Tapp says. "What you see is what's behind doors too, that sincerity. She oozes goodness and is wonderful in that regard."
What makes Danyelle Musselman a particularly good partner for creating a nonprofit benefit from the ground up is that she prefers the spotlight stay on the mission itself.
"She is all about coming in and doing what she needs to do to advance it, but there's definitely no ego there," Tapp says. "She just wants the mission to shine ... and focus on funds being raised and making it the best event we can."
BRIGHT-EYED GIRL
Danyelle Sargent was born in St. Louis as the oldest child of the bunch, which includes a brother and a sister. Aside from her, the whole family lives in Atlanta.
"She's always been a star, from the minute she was born," says mom Theresa Cruz. Danyelle's first magazine cover photo shoot was before they left the hospital at her birth, which Cruz attributes in part to her unusual alertness even as a newborn. "She never stopped looking around at people. She was my first (child), so I thought that was normal."
Cruz read to her all the time, and as a toddler, Danyelle would repeat the stories back to her. She was pointing out the states on a map of the U.S. during her 3-year-old checkup when the pediatrician recommended that her IQ be tested. When the results came back exceptionally high, they enrolled her in gifted classes right away.
"It was like she was an old soul," Cruz says. "Like she'd always been here in another life. She was intuitive, knew more than she should have at a young age."
Early on in school, Danyelle was quiet, never loud or rambunctious or the life of the party, Cruz remembers, but someone with lots of friends, good manners, good morals and a good heart. As a child, she was always a leader, president of her class in Pennsylvania and intent on becoming a veterinarian.
In fourth grade, Danyelle won a statewide essay competition while living in New Jersey. She had written about her grandfather's experiences, his difficulties growing up as a Black boy and the hardships he faced at the time. Cruz had forgotten that she wrote the story, but then after a phone call that reminded her of it, there they were, standing in front of Danyelle's teacher, principal and the governor of New Jersey as she accepted the award.
And of course sports were a huge part of Danyelle's life. Her very first was basketball.
"I liked to play sports, it was in my blood," Musselman says. Her dad was a huge baseball and basketball fan, so she grew up attending major league baseball games and NBA games, but not football until she was older; he wasn't a big fan. "Dad definitely instilled a love of sports into me. I played basketball, softball, I ran track, but basketball was the thing that I really, really loved."
She kept up all three sports in part for their dovetailing seasons, so she could do something year round. Once she got to Florida State University, which she chose for its film school, that's when she began to learn more about football.
Getting into college, Danyelle knew by then that her original career path as a veterinarian wasn't really in her future, but she didn't know exactly what the alternative direction would be. She loved creative writing and had always been a big reader. The professors of her communications classes were among the first to be very influential to her and encouraged Danyelle that she could do the work, filling her with confidence.
"Whenever I started wanting to be a sports anchor, there were very few women in the business and very few women of color," Musselman says. "Me saying that's what I wanted to do was not what people were used to hearing."
By her sophomore year of college, Musselman knew she wanted to get into the business and began to realize that her gravitation to it might have been there all along. She had been involved in school radio announcements and newspaper activities as well as being on the stage in school plays.
"I'd always had that passion, I just didn't know how I wanted to package that up into a career," she says.
Meanwhile, every Saturday of football season, ESPN and ABC would come to her college town. One day they came into Danyelle's class and asked if anyone wanted to be a production assistant. Musselman was picked, and soon she was doing the work for each home football game, giving her the chance to test drive a journalistic job starting with the behind-the-scenes work.
One Saturday her entire job was to make sure the camera cord didn't trip anyone. Then she began to move up. She started working for Monday Night Football, where she got to be assistant to the sideline reporter, Lesley Visser. It was raining that night in Jacksonville, and so Musselman's job was to hold an umbrella over her head for roughly three hours.
"She said 'Are you sure you want to do this?' and I was like 'Absolutely!'"
Danyelle's first paying job was as an editor for CNN Sports Illustrated, where she edited sports highlights for the shows. At the end of the night, the crew would let her sit on the set and read a discarded script from the anchors' work earlier that evening so she could build a tape with the benefit of professional lighting and set. That extra work took her to Macon, Ga.
SPORTSCASTER
Danyelle Sargent's budding career started in local TV news. She secured her first couple of jobs, first in Macon, and then a couple years in Kansas City.
"When you work in local TV, it's not glamorous," Musselman says. "You don't make any money, and you're doing everything, you're the cameraman, your own producer, your own editor, your own makeup artist and wardrobe stylist. But it was so fun. Everyone at the station was young and ambitious and just wanted to make it in that business."
Not only did she have to be a one-man band, she had to navigate the occasional coach with a temper. Learning to be diplomatic enough to carry on the show despite being treated poorly might have been a tall order for a 23-year-old, but she just let it roll off her back.
After a few years of local news, Sargent's cousin -- who then worked at ESPN and now works for the Miami Heat -- connected Danyelle with his agent. It helped Danyelle move to ESPN herself, which she said was a dream come true.
At the time, it was a much smaller network with only 40 anchors and not very many women, she says. There was maybe one other Black woman. It could be intimidating, but her mentor Stuart Scott helped her internalize that she was supposed to be there and walked her through the transition from local to national coverage.
Danyelle kept at it, despite being in the minority and having the 6 p.m. to 2 a.m. shift for the first year. She looked up to legends Pam Oliver and Robin Roberts, two Black women who had gone further than anyone else in the business, and would eventually meet them both.
During that time, Danyelle fell in love with New York City and schemed ways to get there. Her chance came in the form of a role at CBS College Sports.
Then Fox Sports in Los Angeles started developing a new show that needed a female anchor and invited Danyelle to audition. She got the job for one day a week. That meant she flew cross country each week to do both jobs at once, CBS and Fox, New York and L.A., until they were able to offer her enough work for her to move to Los Angeles full time.
In the course of her journalistic career, she would meet many incredible athletes. She interviewed LeBron James when he was still in high school, a 17-year-old in a basketball tournament she covered. And Dee Brown, 1991 slam-dunk champion of the NBA who was her favorite athlete growing up, became her colleague at ESPN during her tenure.
Among her favorite jobs was working for Yahoo Sports, which was a small department, so in one year she got to go to both the World Series and the Patriots vs. Giants Super Bowl.
"We didn't have the credentials to go on the field right after the game was over," Danyelle says. "But somehow we got out there -- my cameraman, producer and I -- when the confetti was falling. It was an experience I will never forget."
Despite her time as a national reporter being behind her by a few years, Danyelle's No. 1 interview experience was this April, when she took the opportunity to speak with Venus Williams in front of a large audience at Bud Walton Arena.
Musselman says she cherished the chance to conduct that interview, which at 45 minutes was far more in depth than those quick, 3-minute ones of her broadcasting past.
"I was blown away with how funny and genuine and down-to-earth she was, to be one of the greatest female athletes in the country," she says. "I'll probably not have any other experience like that."
RAZORBACK MOM
Danyelle was working in Los Angeles when she had the opportunity to moderate a media panel that changed the course of her life. There, in the audience, was Eric Musselman, who was at the time "just an out-of-work single dad," she says. He had just left the Sacramento Kings and was working in broadcasting a bit.
"I had to meet her," says Coach Eric Musselman. "I asked a friend to get her number for me, and he came back without it. He told me I had no chance."
As he was about to leave to fly back to San Francisco, someone told him about a party. It sounded like a chance to get to know Danyelle a little, so he canceled his flight and the two spent the evening chatting with each other for the first time. It was only at the end of the night, when they both stood up, that Eric realized she was taller than he was.
"I loved that she was vibrant, full of energy, that she always had a smile, was positive, kind to people, even in the beginning as a sportscaster," Coach Musselman says. He asked around about Danyelle and heard nothing but incredible things.
"I thought he was hilarious," Danyelle Musselman says. "He can captivate an audience, and he's just fun to be around."
Two days later was their first date, and the connection was immediate. They shared a love of movies, traveling and working out, for starters, and pretty soon they were lifting weights together and doing dinner afterward.
"I would turn on the TV for the final score and see her 30-minute segments," Eric Musselman says. "I was just mesmerized that she knew the names of hockey players (from) out of the country to football and NBA and was good at it. Nothing surprises me with her."
Eric lived in the Bay area with his sons, who were 12 and 8 at the time, and Danyelle lived in Los Angeles. She met his boys and family soon after meeting him.
"I love the fact that the two of them have so much in common in the sports world," says Kristine Platt, Eric Musselman's mother. "We're a basketball family from several generations. For someone who is a sports commentator, it's still amazing when you put a microphone in front of her."
A year and a half later, they were married and soon after, Danyelle became pregnant with their daughter right as Musselman was getting back into coaching. Being a coach's wife with a brand new baby meant putting away any expectations of how that phase of life was supposed to be, while travel and basketball took over.
The Musselmans lived in Reno and then Los Angeles while Coach Muss worked in the D League (the NBA's minor league). When Arizona State University called with an opportunity for him to enter the field of college basketball, it was Danyelle who encouraged him to get into it.
"I'm sure she thought I'd stay in the NBA ... two years in the D league was probably not what she had in mind," Eric Musselman says. When faced with the decision to become an assistant for Louisiana State University, Danyelle told him to take it over the offer from the Minnesota Timberwolves. "There's zero chance I would have done college basketball without her. She's got good instincts of who to work for."
In the coming years, the family bounced around -- LSU for eight months, University of Nevada and then finally the Razorbacks. Danyelle says she took apart and rebuilt her daughter's crib more times than she could count.
"I think she understands the travel and the ins and outs of teaching basketball, and she's such a passionate person," Platt says. "She's an incredible mother and the way she can juggle (all the) schedules in a positive, loving, giving way is really, really neat. She just moves along with it ... They're a dynamic duo."
As the official Razorback basketball team mom, Danyelle has an open door policy in their home for their players, always ready to make a meal or lend a listening ear. She checks in with them, especially when they're injured or sick, and on trips makes sure that each one has what he needs.
"She put a good career on hold to chase my dream," Coach Muss says. That's worked to the Razorbacks' benefit, too. Danyelle's "an incredible recruiter ... she does a great job of staying connected to three areas a coach needs -- current, future and past players and their families."
Danyelle Musselman in Bud Walton Arena Thursday, July 28, 2022, in Fayetteville. Visit nwaonline.com/221002Daily/ for today's photo gallery. (NWA Democrat-Gazette/Andy Shupe)Danyelle Sargent Musselman
Date and place of birth: May 7, 1977, St. Louis, Mo.
Family: Husband Coach Eric Musselman and children Michael, 26, Matthew, 22, and Mariah, 12
What I’m looking forward to most about this year’s Suits and Sneakers Gala: The VIP part of the party has been moved to a really cool location; I’m really excited about that change.
What I love about Northwest Arkansas: My neighborhood. My daughter made friends immediately … and the coaches and their wives from the other sports have just always been so welcoming to us. I’ve lived in a lot of big cities, and this does have the small town feel to it. My husband can be home in 10 minutes.
My first Arkansas connection was: my dad, who was from Magnolia. He was born and raised his whole childhood in Arkansas. Last summer I got to go down to Magnolia while speaking at a Boys and Girls Club event. It’s one of the best days I’ve ever had.
Question I get the most: “How did you and Eric meet?”
A typical Saturday night for me includes: Lately, it’s involved college football.
First movie I watched in the theater after the worst of the pandemic: “Top Gun.” We missed this! Before Covid, we were at the movies once a week.
The last production I saw at TheatreSquared: “The Mountaintop”
Restaurants I love around here: We don’t eat out a ton because I like to cook, but we’re a big fan of Wright’s BBQ, Fish City Grill and Pizzeria Rubia.
One of the meals I love to make for my family: Anything Mexican.
Fantasy dinner guests: Oprah Winfrey, Barack Obama, my dad who passed away in 1995 and my father-in-law, Bill Musselman, who passed away before Eric and I met.
My all-time favorite athlete: Venus or Serena Williams (I can’t choose one!)
What makes me laugh the most: Funny memes on Instagram.
Something everyone should try at least once: Moving to a new state.
When I have an hour of free time, I spend it: Working out.
You might be surprised that I: am a bit of a homebody because you probably see me out a lot, but there’s nothing I like better than being in my pajamas at 9 o’clock and watching TV with my husband.
Something else little known about me: I’ve done some acting. Once was with Comedy Central, I played a reporter for a sports version of The Onion. I did some national commercials while I lived in Arizona, and I played a reporter in an episode of NCIS.
Three words to describe me: passionate, empathetic, calm.
More information: www.suitsandsneakersar.com