Gators coach Butler and local artist team up for a good cause -- honoring Kay Yow
Friday, February 18, 2011 | Women's Basketball, Men's Golf, Scott Carter
Gators women's basketball coach Amanda Butler has many fond memories of former N.C. State coach Kay Yow.
She remembers meeting Yow early in her coaching career at various functions and how Yow treated her no different than if she were Pat Summit. She remembers looking up to Yow, one of the sport's great ambassadors. She remembers coaching against Yow in the final weeks of Yow's life.
The Gators won at N.C. State on Dec. 7, 2008. A few days later, Yow left the bench for good as her cancer – she was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 1987 – finally overtook her body. Yow died on Jan. 24, 2009, but her spirit remains stronger than ever and Butler and other coaches from around the nation are honoring Yow this week by wearing specially designed pink-themed shoes to support the Kay Yow Cancer Fund.
Butler cherishes her time around Yow and that head-to-head meeting at the end of Yow's life.
“She just didn't want any excuses. She didn't want any pity,'' Butler said Thursday. “She didn't want anything other than for the focus to be on her team and also the focus on moving forward and trying to find the positive in every life circumstance even when it's a very challenging one like what she was faced with.''
To read more about Yow, click here to watch a video and read a story honoring her life on ESPN.com.
Thanks to the creative talents of Gainesville resident and UF grad Tina Mullen, Butler and other coaches around the country such as Oklahoma's Sherri Coale, Miami's Kate Meier, Kentucky's Matthew Mitchell, LSU's Van Chancellor and North Carolina's Sylvia Hatchell are wearing hand-painted Nike shoes in Yow's memory this weekend.
Butler is wearing her pair in Sunday's home game against Mississippi State. Afterward, the shoes will be auctioned off and the proceeds donated to the Kay Yow Cancer Fund.
Mullen is director of the arts and medicine program at Shands Hospital. The program uses the arts as therapy for seriously ill patients and she became involved in the Yow Cancer Fund project by chance.
“It's a lot of fun,'' Mullen said. “I've had a blast since getting involved.''
A member of the Backcourt Club – a UF women's basketball booster organization – Mullen used her artistic ability to paint her a pair of Gator-themed Chuck Taylors to wear to games. Butler noticed the shoes and asked if Mullen could make her a pair. She did, and soon other coaches wanted a pair once they saw Butler's.
Soon, the idea spread to honor Yow with special shoes to auction off as part of what is known as Think Pink Week in women's basketball.
Mullen's creative talents were once again called upon by Bulter, and she is thankful to be involved in such an important cause as cancer awareness. One of Yow's most famous quotes – “When life kicks you let it kick you forward” – is hand-painted on each pair of shoes she designs.
“One of the things we wanted to do was deliver one of Coach Yow's messages,'' Mullen said. “It remains one of the catch phrases of the Kay Yow Fund as they raise money for cancer awareness. We really wanted to emphasize the impact she had on so many lives.
“I just wanted to create a dynamic pair of shoes and really unique. She is heroic like so many people who fight cancer.''
Butler is ready to lace her pair up on Sunday. She received the shoes on Thursday and showed them off before the Gators practiced.
“We've got a little bit of our Gator orange mixed in with the pink,'' Butler said.
Butler hopes when she wears them Sunday that more people will take time to remember Yow the way she often does.
“I'm hoping a bunch of people come out and support, not just to raise awareness but to raise money,'' Butler said. “She was always so good to me. I was just little peon coach at UNC-Charlotte and she never treated me that way.''
