Yow's drive essential to growth of the women's game

By Bob Holliday

Raleigh, N.C. — When Kay Yow began coaching women’s basketball, the game was primitive – and so where the uniforms.

"Rag tag's a good word," longtime UNC coach Sylvia Hatchell said. "You had one uniform and that was the uniform that the volleyball team wore.”

"Our staff has heard all the stories _ about when she started coaching, they had to iron on the numbers on their uniforms,” said Stephanie Glance, Yow’s top assistant at N.C. State. "And they had to drive themselves to the games. They would carpool, and there was no money for gas or McDonald's or anything."

The early players were neither exceptionally big nor athletic like today.

"It was not particularly an exciting game except played by a few schools,” said Nora Lynn Finch, the administrator at NCSU who is now an ACC executive in Greensboro. “But when Kay came to N.C. State, N.C. State quickly became one of those schools."

But beyond the walls of Reynolds Coliseum, Yow had a vision for women's basketball.

"They could shoot, they could pass, they could dribble, they could do all those things,” said former assistant coach Que Tucker. “So she was a true ambassador for the game."

Yow conducted clinics for coaches and camps for young players.

"I went to her camp when I was 13,” Glance said. “It feels like the whole world has been to Kay Yow's basketball camp.”

And Yow cared about the game. She wanted more people to care about the women's game. Hatchell recalls how Yow really pushed to get women’s basketball games on television.

"She understood that it reached the masses,” Yow said. “And more than anything else Kay would talk about "we've got to educate the fans."

Yow's big opportunity came on a January Saturday in 1991. Third-ranked NC State hosted second-ranked Virginia in a game that filled every seat in Reynolds Coliseum.

"Her face was just, it's almost like, ‘I can't believe this,’” Tucker said.

"When she saw the N.C. State-Virginia crowd, it brought her to tears,” Finch said, “because it was like, ‘Finally, people are willing to take a gamble and see what I've been talking about.’”

N.C. State and Virginia battled for 55 minutes in one of the greatest games in the history of women's basketball. The teams combined for 243 points. That's still an ACC record before the Cavaliers won.

"Triple overtime … [Virginia star] Dawn Staley … as good as it gets,” Finch said. “As good as it gets."

Another memorable game for Yow came when State upset Carolina in 2007, on that night when the hardwood for Reynolds Coliseum was renamed Kay Yow Court.

"By halftime we were down almost 20 points, and I had one of the greatest teams in the country that year,” Hatchell recalled. “N.C. State put on a clinic."

Later, the Pack battled past powerful Duke in the ACC Tournament.

Yow had a way of motivating players. As Tucker remembered, she would tell them, "Think about all the laps we ran. Think about the time we had to run that drill over and over. You owe it to yourselves to back out there and do that."

There were many defining moments for Yow in her career, and she helped women’s basketball grow in her time in the game.

"It's like a wildfire,” Hatchell said. “It's just spread. It started with a few little sparks and it's just spread and spread and spread."

"And to see what women's basketball has become today,” Glance said. “And to know that Coach Yow is a person who moved the sport forward.

"She had such a big impact on the sport."

But, as Hatchell pointed out, “I'm going to tell you. If Kay were sitting here today, she would say, yes, we've come a long way, but we've still got a ways to go."