Interview with Kay Yow
Jeff
Kay Yow can coach basketball and spin a yarn with equal aplomb.
Ask N.C. State's women's coach about her first season in Raleigh -- 568
wins ago -- and she'll weave you a story about Lulu Eure.
As Yow tells it, Eure left the team before the 1975 season and the coach
begged her to return. Eure did, and the Wolfpack avenged its opening loss
to North Carolina.
Sure, Yow has coached names more famous than Eure and has won 625 games at
N.C. State and Elon in 31 seasons of college coaching. But even as she
heads into tonight's induction into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall
of Fame in Springfield, Mass., Yow remembers what got her there -- her
players.
In fact, trying to cram all those names and memorable games into her
5-minute induction speech is the 60-year-old coach's biggest fear for
today's ceremony.
Yow joins Magic Johnson, Larry Brown, Lute Olson, Drazen Petrovic and the
Harlem Globetrotters team in the Hall's class of 2002.
At a news conference Wednesday, she spoke with The News & Observer's J.P.
Giglio.
Q. What will you talk about during your induction speech?
A. I want it to be a thank you and a tribute and some substance, a touch
of what my career has been about. A touch, remember, five minutes at the
most.
Q. How has the game changed since you started at NCSU in 1975?
A. It's all changed. You pick an area. Yesterday I was watching my players
lift weights. They were really getting after it. It took me back, I
remember the first time we walked down into the weight room. The bar
weighs 45 pounds, and we couldn't lift the bar. We had never lifted
weights. The football players were down there, and they were putting all
these weights on. They gave us a really hard time. What we're doing today,
it's incredible. They can lift a lot more than the bar.
Q. You're 60 and have been a college coach for 31 years. How much longer
do you want to coach?
A. I just signed a contract, renewed for five more seasons. I haven't even
thought about retiring. That word is sort of not in my vocabulary yet. I
love what I'm doing. If my health stays good and I still have the passion
and excitement for the game, I can keep going.
Q. Tennessee and Connecticut will be at the Jimmy V Women's Classic this
Nov. 24 at the RBC Center. How did you get the nation's two best teams
there?
A. I'm on the Jimmy V Foundation board. The Jimmy V Classic for men is in
the Meadowlands. I started talking to [foundation president] Nick
[Valvano] about a classic for women and let N.C. State host it. I coached
with Jim for 10 years, I'm on the board, I had a battle with cancer. So
let's do this. I know [Tennessee coach] Pat [Summit] well, and I knew she
would do it. ESPN called Connecticut. We both hit on it 100 percent.
Q. Will the Women's Classic become an annual event in Raleigh?
A. If we don't have a good crowd and it doesn't pull good ratings, they
might try it somewhere else. This was a great day to do it. It worked out
with ESPN and for us -- it follows the Florida State football game
[against NCSU]. I'm hoping we can get the message out to our fans.
Q. Did you have time this summer for things other than the Hall of Fame
festivities and recruiting?
A. My dad [Hilton Yow, 82] had a stroke on March 20. I'm the oldest
daughter, and I have power of attorney. He nearly died. He was in critical
condition for number of weeks at Moses Cone hospital in Greensboro. He had
a brain surgery, then a heart surgery, then a tracheotomy. For more than
two months, he couldn't eat or have one drop of water. His heart actually
stopped at one point, they had to resuscitate.
So I was there for close to 50 days. I went from here to Greensboro and
back every day. I didn't even get to the [women's] Final Four.
Remember my sister's team [Maryland athletics director Debbie Yow] won the
[men's] national championship. We were in intensive care, and we saw
nothing. My dad didn't even know. We were telling him, but he remembers
nothing about that.
From that time we went to a rehab center and finally to an assisted living
place. He's going to the ceremony [today]. A miraculous recovery -- he
wants to be there. He walks with a cane, he's not paralyzed and he can
drink and eat anything.
Q. Is a national championship something you need to have?
A. I don't feel like I need to have a national championship. Our best
chance for that would be to win an ACC championship. Then we could move
on. To be the best we can be and be better than anyone thinks possible. To
pull it all together and just play great and really have fun.
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