Yow will be remembered for being more than a pioneer for women's basketball. She will be forever seen as a tremenous fighter, as her battle with breast cancer was brought to the forefront of Americans in North Carolina and the country, as she continued with her life and with coaching during her three stints battling the disease.
One of the best articles I've seen is on ESPN.com, which also includes two video tributes on the same page. The link is here - http://sports.espn.go.com/ncw/news/story?id=3857041.
My friend Addison Teachey put it best when talking about Yow. Saturday night, he posted this about her:
"Today (Saturday) the game of basketball lost one of its most honorable members. N.C. State women's basketball coach Kay Yow passed away today after a long and brave fight with breast cancer. However it was not only the game of basketball who lost someone. Coach Yow was not only a great coach but a great person also. Coach Yow was a coach, teacher, and inspirational figure. Her fight with breast cancer inspired many others with the same disease to continue to fight with the same passion that she did. Even though we will remember her on the basketball court, we will remember her more for being the wonderful person that she was and the passion that she fought with. So not only did the game of basketball lose someone. The world lost someone very special to us. - Rest In Peace - Kay Yow - 1942-2009"
On the popular social networking site Facebook.com, NC State students had created the group "In Memory of Kay Yow." By Sunday night, the group had already swarmed to over 6,000 members and counting. It will be mind-blowing to see that same number by next weekend. The same people are encouraging everyone to wear pink on Monday as a tribute to Yow.
Women's basketball teams across the country on Sunday showed respect to Coach Yow, some by wearing shirts during warm-ups, others with patches on their jerseys.
But it might have been North Carolina who stood out the most. During Tar Heels' away match-up at Maryland, a prime-time game televised on ESPN2, instead of their Carolina blue away uniforms, the Lady Heels donned pink jerseys with Carolina blue lettering and numbers. They also had Yow patches on their jerseys.
During the second half of the game, with a Carolina player stepping to the free-throw line, one of ESPN's announcers made the comment "These jerseys aren't pink. They ARE Kay Yow."
On Saturday, several women's coaches and prominant figures said that they will always associate the color pink with Yow.
Kay Yow was a great coach, both for the Wolfpack and the gold medal-winning 1988 USA women's national team. But more than that, she will be remembered as a fighter, an insperation for others with her disease, as someone who didn't allow the disease to control her life.
As former NC State coach Jim Valvano stated shortly before his death in 1993, "Cancer can take away all of my physical abilities. It cannot touch my mind, it cannot touch my heart, and it cannot touch my soul. And those three things are going to carry on forever."
Kay Yow embodied this quote to the fullest extent. And as on Wolfpack fan put it, "Kay and Jimmy will make a heck of a cheering section for NC State."
Kay Yow was one of those people that you felt like could enrich your life just for having met her. I would have loved to meet her, not as a coach, but because of the person she was and the way she carried herself over the last two-plus decades while she battled cancer. She was a fighter until the end, and was able to be around the game and players she loved until the final weeks.
We will always remember her for her fight and the awarness of breast cancer she brought to the forefront of people's minds across the country.
There will never be another Kay Yow, not as a coach, but more importantly as a great person.
Sandra Kay Yow
1942 - 2009
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