North Carolina State University Athletics
Kay Yow Honored With Wooden Award
4/3/2000 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
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The Utah Tip Off Club and ex-UCLA coach John Wooden will personally present this prestigious award, named for Coach Wooden and his wife Nellie and represents excellence in college basketball coaching as well as his long-standing ethics and integrity, to Yow and Self at a noon banquet Saturday, April 15th in Salt Lake City at Utah's downtown Marriott Hotel.
In announcing the selection Lee Brower, the Club's Chairman, called Yow "one of the most successful coaches in the history of women's basketball. She not only places emphasis on basketball skills, but places great emphasis on the academic success of her players." Brower said, "Bill Self typifies everything that's good about the game of basketball. Even when placed in the middle of a team's season of adversity, he never let it hinder his motivation to put his team among the WAC contenders and to help further their success."
The selection of Yow and Self was determined by a national panel of more than 60 prestigious college and professional basketball coaches, executives and sportscasters.
This is the fourth year the Utah Tip Off Club has given this award in conjunction with Coach Wooden. The inclusion of Wooden's late wife Nellie's name to the honor was done as both a tribute to her and in recognition of the high caliber and quality of women basketball coaches.
Yow, having been with North Carolina State for 25 years, was just named Sports Illustrated for Women's National Coach of the Year. In 1998, she became just the third coach in the history of women's basketball - joining Tennessee's Pat Summitt and Jody Conradt of Texas (both past John and Nellie Wooden Award winners) - to win 500 games at one school.
Yow has four former NC State players in the WNBA and has worked with two U.S. Olympic Teams and seven other U.S. select teams, including the Pan American, World University and World Championship squads.
Self, at age 36, has 15 years of Division I coaching experience. He has now been a part of nine teams that have advanced to postseason competition, including six trips to the NCAA Tournament and three appearances in the NIT. Self became only the sixth coach among the 26 head coaches in Tulsa's school history to take a team to the NCAA Tournament.
Self, in his three years as head coach with Tulsa, has compiled 73 victories - the most in school history by a third year coach.
The Utah Tip Off Club and coach John Wooden announce they will also present The Contribution to Basketball Award, named for Coach Wooden and his wife Nellie, to Coach Morgan Wootten of DeMatha High School and his wife Kathy at the same banquet April 15th in Salt Lake City. Coach Wooden stated, "Morgan Wootten has been called the finest high school basketball coach in the country. I disagree. MORGAN WOOTTEN IS THE FINEST COACH, AT ANY LEVEL, I HAVE EVER SEEN."
This year Wootten entered his sixth decade of coaching and is in his 43rd year at DeMatha. With his team's win on January 15, 2000, Wootten became the first basketball coach at any level (high school, college or pro) to reach 1,200 wins. Coach Wootten's basketball record at DeMatha is an amazing 1,213 - 183.
Wootten has been honored by Walt Disney Co. as an "Outstanding Teacher of the Year" and has received the John W. Bunn Award at the Basketball Hall of Fame. He was also presented the "Humanitarian-of-the-Year" award by the International Lion's Club and honored with a "Lifetime Achievement Award" by the Maryland Athletic Hall of Fame.
The Utah Tip Off Club was organized in November, 1996 in Salt Lake City by a group of community leaders, basketball enthusiasts and corporate officials to recognize outstanding high school and collegiate basketball players and coaches in Utah. Each year the club awards The John and Nellie Wooden Award to the top men's and women's college basketball coaches in America. Past winners of the John and Nellie Wooden Coach of the Year Award were Minnesota 's Clem Haskins and Jody Conradt of Texas (1997), Rick Majerus of Utah and Tennessee's Pat Summitt (1998) and Auburn's Cliff Ellis and Purdue's Carolyn Peck (1999).
