Hall Of Fame Women's Basketball Coach At Notre Dame Crossword
Notre Dame Women's Basketball has a long and storied history, with many great coaches leading the way. One of the most successful of these coaches is Muffet McGraw, who coached the team from 1987 to 2020. McGraw is a Hall of Fame coach who led the Fighting Irish to two national championships and multiple Final Four appearances. She is also known for her advocacy of women's equality in sports and for being a mentor to many women in the coaching profession.
Early Life and Career
Muffet McGraw was born Ann O'Brien in 1955 in Pottsville, Pennsylvania. She grew up in a large Irish Catholic family and attended Saint Joseph's University in Philadelphia, where she played basketball and earned a degree in sociology. After college, she worked as a social worker for a few years before deciding to pursue a career in coaching.
McGraw's first coaching job was as an assistant at Archbishop Carroll High School in Radnor, Pennsylvania. She then moved on to become an assistant at Saint Joseph's University, where she spent five years before being hired as the head coach at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
Notre Dame Career
In 1987, Muffet McGraw was hired as the head coach of the Notre Dame Women's Basketball team. At the time, the team was struggling and had not had a winning season in five years. However, McGraw quickly turned things around, leading the Fighting Irish to a winning record in her second season and a berth in the NCAA tournament in her third season.
Over the course of her 33-year tenure at Notre Dame, McGraw became one of the most successful coaches in women's college basketball history. She led the Fighting Irish to two national championships, in 2001 and 2018, and nine Final Four appearances. She also won 936 games at Notre Dame and had a winning percentage of .734.
McGraw's success at Notre Dame was due in large part to her ability to recruit and develop top talent. She coached many All-Americans and WNBA players, including Skylar Diggins, Ruth Riley, and Arike Ogunbowale.
Advocacy for Women's Equality
Muffet McGraw is also known for her advocacy for women's equality in sports. In 2019, she made headlines when she called for more women to be hired as head coaches in men's sports. "I'm getting tired of the novelty of the first female governor of this state, the first female African-American mayor of this city," she said in a press conference. "When is it going to become the norm instead of the exception?"
McGraw also spoke out about the lack of women in leadership positions in college athletics, saying that "We don't have enough female role models. We don't have enough visible women leaders. We don't have enough women in power." She has been a mentor to many women in the coaching profession and has advocated for more opportunities for women to coach at all levels of sports.
Retirement
In April 2020, Muffet McGraw announced that she was retiring from coaching. "It has been my great honor to represent the University of Notre Dame these past 33 years, but the time has come for me to step down as your head basketball coach," she said in a statement.
McGraw's retirement was a loss for Notre Dame Women's Basketball and for women's college basketball as a whole. However, her legacy as a Hall of Fame coach, an advocate for women's equality, and a mentor to many young coaches will live on.