North Carolina State University Athletics
TIM PEELER: Kay Yow's World of Silver Linings
12/4/2007 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
BY TIM PEELER
She’s too busy enjoying the shiny silver linings.
It’s a lesson Yow learned from her mother, Lib, who never stopped looking for a brighter tomorrow, even as she ultimately lost her battle in the spring of 1993, just weeks after Yow’s friend and fellow NC State basketball coach Jim Valvano also died of the disease in the same hospital.
“My mother was a strong individual,” Yow said Monday. “She always said to me, whenever I got down, Kay, there is a silver lining in every dark cloud. But you have to look for it.’ She was always a person who was really positive. She wouldn’t let me dwell on the negative.”
So it’s really no wonder that Monday when representatives of the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association, ESPN and the V Foundation gathered to announce the establishment of the Kay Yow/WBCA Cancer Fund Yow took a little time to think about what good has come from her on-going fight with a disease that kills some 40,000 people annually in the United States.
“This [announcement] is one of the great blessings of having Stage IV cancer,” Yow said. “I don’t know that this would have happened without me ... going through what I have gone through. Isn’t it wonderful that this has come about in my life, an opportunity to be a part of the V Foundation?
“Cancer is a tough opponent, but when you can see some of the blessings that come with it, it really inspires and motivates me to fight really hard to do everything that I can do to help make a difference. I hope people will really respond and that all the coaches across the country realize that this is something that we can do together and really be proud of.”
One of Yow’s first blessings came shortly after she was first diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent a double radical mastectomy in 1987. Less than a year later, she led the
Even when the cancer came back three years ago, Yow never flinched. She took some time off, explored her options with an alternative nutritional program and silver-lined her way through another round of chemotherapy, leading her team back to the NCAA Tournament to boot.
And last year, all she did after coming back from her second leave-of-absence to fight the disease was inspire her team to advance to the ACC Championship game and a spot in the Sweet Sixteen, making Yow again one of college basketball’s most inspirational figures.
Monday was just another siliver-lining for Yow, a founding member of the WBCA, a long-time member of the V Foundation Board of Directors and an inductee into both the Women's Basketball and the Naismith Memorial Basketball halls of fame.
Officially, the Kay Yow/WBCA Cancer Fund will be an off-shoot of the V Foundation for Cancer Research, named after late NC State men’s basketball coach who died in 1993 from a form of bone cancer. In conjunction with ESPN, Valvano formed the V Foundation to give grants to help young scientists fund their cancer research. Since it began raising money, with the help of ESPN and numerous special events around the country, the foundation has raised more than $70 million.
It is one of the few charities in the country that is 100 percent endowed, meaning all of its operating costs are funded by its endowment and all donations go to cancer research, usually in the form of $500,000 to $2 million grants.
Nick Valvano, the late coach’s older brother, has been the foundation’s executive director since its inception. He was by Yow’s side for Monday’s announcement.
“It’s kind of a no-brainer that we would come together on this,” Nick Valvano said. “Both Kay and Jim are NC State coaches. Both showed incredible courage in their fights against this disease.
“She is also our family’s friend, she was my brother’s friend and she is my friend. If you are going to go into a fight, it’s nice to do it with a friend, someone with whom you share the same values. So for us, it is really a labor of love to bring Jimmy and Kay together again, and we are thrilled to be a part of this.”
“We simply told her, that whatever she raises, we will put it towards women’s cancer issues.”
So maybe that’s a big task for Yow, who doesn’t have the same energy levels she had during the 10 years she spending working side-by-side with Jimmy V. But the coach, an inspiration to so many, has always found time to be a role model.
“There are so many people who want me to call somebody, to write somebody, something,” Yow said. “Some people are more positive about it.
“Other people ... are down and really struggling. I see them all the time at my clinic when I get my shots and my treatments. They can be really down low, and I have been that low. But I like to show them that it is possible to get back to a higher level.
“A lot of people have told me, if you can do it, then I can do it.’”
And being that inspiration is the shiniest silver lining Yow knows.
You may contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
