50 ■ THE WOLFPACKER
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BY BRIAN RAPP
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he list of names that have pioneered collegiate bas-
ketball for women in this country is a familiar one.
Immaculata University coach Cathy Rush. Delta
State coach Margaret Wade. Texas coach Jody Con-
radt. Tennessee coach Pat Summitt. And of course, Kay Yow,
the first full-time women's athletic coach in North Carolina
— and the Atlantic Coast Conference — when she was hired
by then NC State director of athletics Willis Casey in 1975 to
head the Wolfpack's fledgling women's basketball team.
Two years later, Casey, at the request of Yow, made another
hire — a 29-year-old native of Henderson, N.C., that had been
making a name for herself as a very successful coach at nearby
Peace College.
For the next 31 years, Nora Lynn Finch would be the not-so-
silent partner to Yow in helping take women's college hoops
Finch (left) was former Pack women's basketball Hall of Fame coach Kay Yow's first assistant at NC State.
PHOTO COURTESY NC STATE MEDIA RELATIONS
NORA LYNN
FINCH
