North Carolina State University Athletics
Yow Named Hall Of Fame Finalist
4/23/2002 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
April 23, 2002
Springfield, Mass.--NC State women's basketball coach Kay Yow has been named a finalist for enshrinement into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame for the second consecutive year. The inductees will be named on June 5th in Los Angeles, California and enshrined into the new $103 million Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame on September 27th.
"By announcing this class in Los Angeles, we are making a statement that the Basketball Hall of Fame is more than a building located in Springfield, Mass., the birthplace of basketball, but an organization that represents the best of the game from coast to coast," said John L. Doleva, President and CEO of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
Yow, a native of Gibsonsville, North Carolina, has 625 career victories at Elon College and North Carolina State, fifth best in women's basketball history. Yow, who led the Wolfpack to the 1998 Final Four, has led NC State into the NCAA Tournament 15 times in the last 19 years, a mark that includes nine Sweet 16 appearances. She has won five regular-season Atlantic Coast Conference titles and four ACC Tournament championships. Her teams have reached the ACC Tournament Final in 12 of 23 years. Yow, has coached 18 20-win seasons. Her teams have finished in the final Associated Press top-20 poll 16 times in her 27 seasons.
In 1978, Yow led North Carolina State to the Elite Eight of the AIAW Tournament. Yow has earned numerous coach of the year awards, including Women's Basketball Coach of the Year by College Sports News (1998), Women of the Year In Sport by the National Organization of Women (1988), the Converse/WBCA Coach of the Year (1990) and the National Coach of the Year by Sports Illustrated For Women (2000). Yow, who is the only women's coach in history to win a Gold Medal at both the Olympics (1988, Seoul) and World Championships (1996), has compiled a 21-1 record in International competition.
Yow, who has been inducted into the Women's Sports Hall of Fame (1988) and the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame (2000), began her college-coaching career at Elon College in 1972. At Elon, she compiled a 57-19 record, a mark that included two North Carolina State titles.
Other finalists include Wayland Baptist coach Harley Redin, Immaculata's Cathy Rush, Forrest Anderson, Grady Lewis and Earl Lloyd, and international finalists Pedro Ferrandiz, Dino Meneghin and the late Drazen Petrovic. An individual needs 18 of 24 votes from the Honors Committee for enshrinement.
