Kay Yow, women's basketball coach for North Carolina State University, died tonight, after a long, tenacious fight against cancer.
I could try to sum her up in numbers -- 66 years old, 737 wins, 11 Sweet 16 appearances, 34 seasons -- but none of those seem adequate to capture the most important things about her. Her age? Too young, much too young. Her records? Incredible achievements, but surpassed by victories not recorded in the statistics of college basketball.
Let me tell you a little bit about her.
Kay Yow started battling cancer in 1987 -- over two decades ago. And until this past season, she managed keep coaching despite the pain and the therapy and all the debilitating effects.
In 1993, cancer took her mom; then it took her friend and fellow Wolfpack coach Jimmy V -- she kept fighting.
Hers went into remission, and then came back...twice. She kept fighting.
Cancer took some of her friends, fellow patients -- she kept fighting.
No matter what happened, no matter how large the setback -- she kept fighting.
And all through this, she was the one trying to help others -- showing incredible patience with the kids she coached, mentoring them in the truest sense of the word, and not just about basketball. She was magnamimous in victory and gracious in defeat -- so much so that it was sometimes difficult to tell the score by her demeanor in post-game interviews.
Her teams reflected her persona -- heck, the year after she was diagnosed with cancer, she coached the US women to an Olympic gold medal. They may not have been the most talented team on the court...but they simply refused to quit, refused to accept any outcome but the one they created. It's not hard at all to figure out where they learned that.
Kay Yow was one of those people who transcended the mere sport she worked in -- like her colleague Jim Valvano, like Walter Payton of the Chicago Bears. She had the ability to teach life, moreover, to teach it by example. She was patient, tolerant, loving, and generous with everything she had to give. And she stood eyeball-to-eyeball with cancer for twenty-one years and never backed off an inch.
Mechelle Voepel has written a far more eloquent piece for ESPN, and given that words seem to be failing me right now, I think perhaps you should read hers. But I want to borrow two things from that, if I might.
First: The Jim Valvano Foundation is the place to send donations, which have been requested instead of flowers.
Second: Mechelle used a word in her piece that's the same word I use when I talk about those battling breast cancer, because I think out of all the words in the language, it's the most appropriate: warrior.
Kay Yow was a warrior. Honor her.