Kay Yow – March 14, 1942 – January 24, 2009
January 24, 2009 by Kevin Hunter
Filed under Basketball
If you’ve been watching any college basketball today then you saw that North Carolina State women’s coach Kay Yow died today after a 22 year battle with breast cancer. She was 66 years old.
Yow was one of winningest coaches in women’s basketball history, ranking sixth in all-time wins with a record of 737-344. She coached for 38 years, 34 at North Carolina State. She won four Atlantic Coast Conference tournament titles, 20 bids to the Big Dance, including a Final Four in 1998.
She even coached the 1988 women’s Olympic team to the gold medal. The only thing that eluded her was a national championship. Yow was inducted into the Naismith Hall of Fame in 2002.
I had the pleasure of meeting Ms. Yow while covering the ESPY’s a few years ago. She was very nice and gracious even though I could see she was still suffering from the cancer. I put her on the short list of some of the greatest people in sports I’ve met in my lifetime.
ESPN is currently running a tribute to Yow that is worth watching. If you miss it I’m sure they’ll be running it again. Check your local listings. Or check out some of the many tributes online today and in the next few days.
My thoughts and prayers go out to the Yow and North Carolina State families.
