Kay Yow

From the AP:

Few coaches won more, none won more gracefully

By JIM LITKE – 3 hours ago

Kay Yow was around at the start of the debate. It's just one measure of how influential she was to women's sports that three decades later, even at the moment of her passing at age 66, Yow's insistence that how you win was as important as whether you win never seemed more relevant.

She was two years out of graduate school and just beginning to carve out a career as women's basketball coach and athletics coordinator at tiny Elon College in North Carolina when the groundbreaking piece of legislation known as Title IX was passed in 1972. But to pioneers like Yow, just as important as the promise of equal opportunity was the sense of responsibility women owed one another in developing a game of their own.

Some argued in favor of following the model long provided by men, focusing on competition, skill development and winning at all costs, the faster the better. Others argued for taking the high road, stressing cooperation, character-building and slow growth.

Both by example and through the force of her personality, during her long tenure on the bench at North Carolina State and her long fight against cancer, Yow proved over and over there was a middle ground. Few coaches won more and none, arguably, exhibited more grace doing it.