Cal Poly women’s basketball coach Faith Mimnaugh remembers Kay Yow fondly.
At the first mention of her name, Mimnaugh’s eyes give a far-off look, as she recalls not just the greatness of her mentor’s coaching abilities, but the kindness of her heart.
“Coach Yow was a mentor, friend, inspiration … she was everything,” Mimnaugh said.
Yow passed away from breast cancer last month at the age of 66. She had been fighting it since 1987.
Yow was a trailblazer in women’s basketball. She coached North Carolina State to nearly 700 victories in over three decades with the team. She guided the Wolfpack to 20 NCAA tournament appearances and a Final Four berth in 1998. She won a gold medal coaching the 1988 women’s basketball Olympic team in Seoul, South Korea.
Yet as accomplished as her feats are on the court, she is lauded equally for her off-court campaign urging cancer awareness.
“Certainly from the basketball community we lost not just a pioneer, but a real warrior,” Mimnaugh said. “And I think the world has lost someone who has demonstrated on a daily basis her faith, boundless energy and a belief in the fact that we can (beat cancer).”
The Mustangs will join Yow’s cause in promoting awareness when they host UC Santa Barbara at 4 p.m. Saturday in the Women’s Basketball Coaches Assocation Pink Zone game.
There will be a donation table set up inside Mott Gym during the game where fans can donate to the American Cancer Society. The school is also offering a special two-for-one offer to community members to get two people into the game for the price of one.
The Mustangs will wear pink warm-up shirts and ribbons in their hair for the contest.
The game will have special meaning for Mimnaugh, who has seen the effects of cancer all too close.
“My mother died of Leukemia,” she said. “My grandmother passed of pancreatic cancer. My grandfather passed of prostate cancer. Cancer is everywhere.”
Mimnaugh isn’t the only Cal Poly coach committed to fighting the deadly disease.
Softball head coach Jenny Condon has put together a game over the past several years called “Strike Out Cancer” in which the team wears pink jerseys and raises funds through a raffle to donate to the American Cancer Society. The games have raised nearly $2,500 in the past few years.
This year, the softball team, in conjunction with sports apparel company Under Armour, will step up its efforts even further.
The Mustangs will play two “Power in Pink” games this season. They will face Cal State Fullerton on the road in the first pink game, before hosting UC Santa Barbara on April 4 in a doubleheader with the baseball team.
“We’re really hoping to get the fans’ support,” Condon said. “We’re trying to raise cancer awareness, but any money we can get for the cancer society is just an extra blessing.”
Like Mimnaugh, Condon herself has felt the personal touch of cancer and wants to do all she can to find a cure.
“Two years ago, which was the first year we did (Strike Out Cancer), my brother was diagnosed with Burkitt’s Lymphoma,” she said. “We’ve got some kids on the team now who have gone through it. (Senior shortstop) Melissa Pura’s dad is a cancer survivor. He threw out the first pitch at last year’s game.”
Cal Poly assistant athletic director Shaun Russell, who helped organize the Pink Zone game, said that the school is happy to help promote cancer awareness through athletics.
“This is an amazing cause,” Russell said. “There isn’t anyone in America who hasn’t been effected by cancer in some way.”
Russell applauded the efforts of Mimnaugh and her team especially for their dedication not just against cancer, but for their efforts within the community.
“They’ve done an incredible job,” Russell said. “It’s just another great thing that they’ve done with a community outreach program.”
Mimnaugh has come a long way from the graduate assistant that Yow initially hired in June of 1989. But her respect and admiration for the legendary coach was immediate.
“When I went to college, the coach kind of gave me the ball and let me do whatever I wanted – it was fastbreak,” Mimnaugh said. “We never had much structure. But coach Yow had a ton of structure. She wanted the fastbreak run a certain way. She had every play diagrammed.”
But cancer always loomed in the background. Yow had just been diagnosed two years previously and had already gone through a mastectomy.
Despite the hardship, Yow worked through it. Through the chemo, through the pain, year in and year out, she was there for her team – and she was there for Mimnaugh.
“She knew that I was dirt poor,” Mimnaugh recalled. “She would have me come over to her house and walk her dogs to help me get a little bit of extra money in my pocket.”
When initially hired as a graduate assistant, Mimnaugh received tuition, room and board, but no other compensation.
“The only cash I had was working the Kay Yow camp in the summertime,” Mimnaugh said. “But she would ask me to come over and I could actually stay in her house and watch her dogs when she was away.
“So she allowed me to stay in more than a six-by-eight room in a dormitory somewhere. She gave me use of her phone. I could have anything in the fridge or watch her big screen TV. Back then I didn’t even own a TV.”
Yow would eventually promote Mimnaugh to assistant coach, a paid position that put her on track towards a career that seemed unfathomable years earlier as she toiled in Australian professional leagues.
“I would not be here at Cal Poly if not for Kay Yow,” Mimnaugh said. “I probably would not have had an opportunity in Division I basketball at all had it not been for coach Yow. She saw a worker in me.”
Mimnaugh continues working. The Mustangs are in the midst of their best season in nearly 20 years.
But for Mimnaugh, the team’s success takes a backseat to the fight against cancer. With the battle ongoing, people like Yow, Mimnaugh and Condon are heading to the frontline.
“Kay has a vision about us crushing this disease,” Mimnaugh said. “Sometimes when cancer is so prevalent or other diseases are so prevalent, it is hard to see an end to it other than the end that unfortunately Kay realized and my mom realized. It’s a hope, and I think that’s something that she instilled in all of us.”
-Editor’s note: For a full preview of the Pink Zone game against UC Santa Barbara see tomorrow’s edition of the Mustang Daily.