While at Elon, Yow also coached the volleyball team and the women's tennis squad while teaching physical education.  In three seasons at the helm of the volleyball squad, Yow posted a 71-25 record and finished second in the state once and third in the state twice.

For many, Yow was best defined by her unwavering resolve while fighting cancer, from raising awareness and money for research to staying with her team through the debilitating effects of the disease and chemotherapy treatments. In her final months, Yow was on hormonal therapy as the cancer spread to her liver and bone.

"Elon was fortunate to find a woman like Kay Yow to begin our women's athletic program," said friend Janie Brown, who helped pioneer women's athletics at Elon.  "The program was started at a time when women received little administrative support.  She believe then, as she continued to believe, that you make the best of the situation you are given.  That's the way she lived her life.  I am happy to have had her as a friend and a colleague."

In December 2007, the Kay Yow/WBCA Cancer Fund in partnership with The V Foundation was established as a charitable organization committed to finding an answer in the fight against women’s cancers. Elon will host a Pink Zone game on Saturday, Feb. 7 at 2:30 p.m. to benefit the Kay Yow Fund.

In 1975, Yow was hired to be the head coach of the women’s basketball program at N.C. State. She was installed as the head coach of both the softball and volleyball teams and was the coordinator of women's sports.

She entered her 34th season as head mentor of the Wolfpack women’s program in 2008-09. Her N.C. State record of 680-325 left her as one of only three women’s coaches at the Division I level to coach 1,000 games at one institution. On Dec. 14 in a victory over Ole Miss, Coach Yow took her place alongside legendary Tennessee coach Pat Summitt and former Texas coach Jody Condradt.

Yow’s all-time collegiate record of 737-344 spanned a total of 38 seasons. She was one of just six coaches to ever compile over 700 victories and began this season as the most tenured coach in the active ranks.

Yow guided her squads to 20 NCAA Tournaments, 11 trips to the Sweet 16, and a trip to the Elite Eight and Final Four in 1998. She collected five Atlantic Coast Conference regular season championships, four ACC Tournament titles, amassed 21 20-win seasons and a staggering 29 winning seasons.

Yow led the U.S. women’s basketball team to a gold medal in 1988 and became just the fifth female coach inducted into the James Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.  N.C. State dedicated ``Kay Yow Court'' in Reynolds Coliseum in 2007. She was inducted in Elon's Sports Hall of Fame in 1986.

Born March 14, 1942, Sandra Kay Yow originally took up coaching to secure a job teaching high school English at Allen Jay High School in High Point in the 1960s. Her boss, along with the boys' coach, agreed to help her plan practices and to sit on the bench with her during games. Midway through the season, Yow was on her own.  She spent four years there followed by another year in her hometown at Gibsonville High, compiling a 92-27 record. 

Her original cancer diagnosis came the year before coaching the United States to the gold in the Seoul Olympics. She had a mastectomy as part of her treatment, then discovered a lump in November 2004 close to where cancer was first discovered. She had surgery that December and started on a regimen of radiation and daily hormone therapy, missing two games with her team.  In 2006-07, she missed 16 contests on the N.C. State bench.  Yow had missed four straight games this season before announcing on Jan. 6 that she would not return to her team for the remainder of the season.

Both of Yow's sisters, Deborah and Susan, played for her at Elon.  Deborah, '74, is an Elon trustee and Director of Athletics at the University of Maryland.  Susan, '76, is the head women's basketball coach at Belmont Abbey.