The Passing of Coach Kay Yow

The Atlantic Coast Conference runs deep in my family.

Both of my daughters will be graduates of Clemson University. My brother-in-law was a Morehead Scholar at UNC-Chapel Hill. I grew up in Orange County, North Carolina, home of UNC. My family's farm is a short drive from Duke University, and I have been a Duke fan most of my life.

But my wife and I are graduates of North Carolina State University, and the Wolfpack family has suffered a terrible loss with the passing of Kay Yow, the Hall of Fame coach of the NCSU women's basketball team.

This past Saturday she died of cancer at age 66. She had been diagnosed with breast cancer in 1987. The disease recurred three times.

She fought her illness with full-court press tenacity. I have to believe her love for her players, and her sheer love of the game of basketball, kept her going.

Under Yow, the women's program was a consistent winner. In her 33 years as NCSU's head coach, her record was 672-318, a winning percentage of .679.

Take time to look up her full list of accomplishments. It'll take awhile to read.

Kay Yow was a true pioneer of basketball.

A memorial service is planned Wednesday 1/28 in NCSU's Reynolds Coliseum. Yow will be laid to rest Saturday in her hometown of Gibsonville, NC.

Wonderful things will be said about Coach Yow, and they are all deserved.

Many of us, as we grow up, have the opportunity to play organized sports and develop relationships with people we call "coach."

Coaches help young people polish their strengths, overcome their weaknesses, make friends and learn to play by the rules.

I was fortunate to know Norman Haithcock.

He was my first basketball coach. I played under him in the 7th and 9th grades in the late 1960's.

Coach Haithcock was frequently on my case because I didn't jump very high. But he had to admit I was quite an outside shooter.

Still am!

I wasn't a star. I usually didn't get into a game unless we were way ahead or way behind. But I never missed a practice, even when I had to run 75 penalty laps after the first day of 9th grade tryouts (I kept knocking over a hurdle). I never told anyone when I sprained my ankle severely. I didn't want to be kept out of practice.

That's how much my coach made me love the game, a love that stays with me to this day, though I seldom find time to play anymore (and when I do, I pay for it with aches and pains for days).

I haven't seen my former coach in nearly 40 years. Tonight I "googled" him. He's been on the school board back in Orange County and tackled many key issues. I don't have current information, but I hope life has been good to him.

If he saw me, he'd probably say, "Go lace up your Converse All-Stars and run 20 laps around the gym... you're out of shape!"

I need to run a -lot- more than 20, Coach!

A good coach makes a lifetime impression on his or her players. Once a coach, always a coach.

Kay Yow turned good players into great ones, American teams into world champions, and she helped bring women's basketball into the spotlight it enjoys to this day.

Her battle against cancer strengthened countless people, like Yow, embroiled in a battle for life.

People respected her, loved her, rooted for her, whether they were on the same team or not.

Good game, Coach.