The Pioneering Claudia Best (1945-2023)
Claudia Best, one of the first women to hold senior management positions in North American professional sports, died last month. Claudia, who would have celebrated her 78th birthday December 8, passed in Seattle on Nov. 2.
Born Claudia Wendt in Bremerton, she attended Central Kitsap High School and Olympic Junior College. Early on, Claudia was an associate of Dick Vertlieb and Herman Sarkowsky at Trail Capital Corp. in Seattle, just as Vertlieb and Sarkowsky were venturing into professional sports ownership, first with the NASL Seattle Sounders and, a year later, the Seattle Seahawks.
Claudia was the first employee for the NFL franchise and was involved in everything initially, including the management of the team naming contest and coordinating the first season ticket deposits. Claudia would also be introduced to John Best, the Sounders’ first head coach, and the couple would later marry.
In 1976, John Best was named general manager of the NASL Vancouver Whitecaps, and Claudia became one of the first women to break into professional sports higher management as director of operations. In their third season, the Whitecaps won the NASL championship, and by 1980 attendance had tripled since their arrival.
They returned to Seattle in 1981, opening a soccer catalogue business, but soon they were beckoned back to the Sounders. Claudia became the director of operations in 1982, when John was named general manager. Attendance would soon rise, and the team reached Soccer Bowl that season.
In 1983, the Bests would bring professional indoor soccer to Tacoma. Claudia was again director of operations, and John was president of the Tacoma Stars. The Stars reached the MISL championship series in 1987, setting league attendance records along the way. Also, during the early Eighties, she was part of a group of community leaders advocating for the University of Washington adding a women’s varsity soccer program. In 1988, the Bests left pro sports.
When John was diagnosed with kidney disease, Claudia donated a kidney to him in 2002. He died in 2014, and she dearly missed him ever since. And we now greatly miss them both.
