Kay Yow: Coach and Christian Missionary

In all the years I spent covering ACC women's basketball, I don't think I ever came across anyone who didn't love Kay Yow. Her folksy manner and graciousness endeared her to everyone she met.

Yow, who died Jan. 24 at age 66, was an accomplished basketball coach, ranking fourth among active Division I coaches in victories - behind only Tennessee's Pat Summit, Rutgers' Vivian Stringer and North Carolina's Sylvia Hatchell. She coached the 1988 U.S. Olympic women's basketball team to a gold medal and became only the fifth female coach inducted in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2002.

Her legacy extends far beyond the court, however. Yow, who first was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1987, was tireless in raising awareness of the disease. Using basketball as her platform, she brought attention and dollars to the fight.

Perhaps because I only talked basketball with her, I was unaware until her death of her "bottomless Christian faith." According to a story in the Greensboro News and Record, Yow smuggled Bibles into the former Soviet Union during the 1986 women's basketball world championships. She later recounted the experience to members of the Morris Chapel United Methodist Church in Walkertown, N.C.

"I'm not sure I will ever take anything for granted again," Yow told the congregation. "I have to believe that the Lord placed me in the Soviet Union this summer. There were a lot of miracles."

By Kathy Orton  |  January 27, 2009; 12:02 PM ET  | Category:  Praying Fields Save & Share:                 
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