Women's Hoops Guru

(Guru's update note on 9/10. Thanks to our Immaculata friends, this now updates spelling questions and fills in some blanks in Cathy's speech that were inaudible on the transcription date). Here is Cathy's Friday night speech in 98 percent of its entirety. A few crowd reacts have been inserted to offer the feel of the room. This begins a few paragraphs into the speech since her reaction on getting the phone call of notification from the hall has already been addressed.)

Talking about getting the phone call and continuing:

“I cried. Women cry at everything: Happiness, sadness, joy, grief.

As I’ve spent the last few days with these wonderful people and I can’t express my joy any greater to be a part of the Hall of Fame and in particularly this class.

It’s been magnificent. I’m so proud. I’ve been to so many events and I was thinking the other day, I hadn’t coached in 31 years Sometimes when my sons aren’t around, I don’t even admit to being that old.

Thirty-one years and yet all these wonderful people are bringing back memories of those wonderful years and they were wonderful. So my line before Adrian (Dantley) stole it was: In so many ways we’re the same and in yet so many ways we’re so different.

Immaculata, 400 students, Catholic school, we had no gym. In fact, someone asked me about our budget and I said, I don’t think we had a budget.

We didn’t have a gym. We had one set of uniforms, we wore the same color all year – Tunics, by the way, (inaudible) (sneakers) Chuck Taylors.

Our gym had burned down before I arrived so we ended up practicing across the street. We had no home court and all of our games were on the road.

And on the road, all of our players found a way to get to the game. We’d meet the day before and say, Hey can you get a ride? Anybody have a car? And they would get to the next game.

So we had no gym. No budget.

In 1972, the first year of the national tournament and 11 players, wonderful woman on my team, I had to tell three of them we didn’t have enough money to take them to the national tournament.

I took eight players, three stayed home. We flew standby to Chicago. Rented cars and drove to Normal, Ill. (Illinois St.). And that was our first national tournament.

And I was saying to someone today – No assistant coach. No manager. No trainer.

Somebody’s down. Get up, you’re not hurt. (big roar of laughter from crowd).

It was a scary time. But in reflecting back, there have been so many wonderful times and so many people alluded to them. We were pioneers before we knew what pioneers meant.

And people ask us about that experience and did you think? Did you dream?

No we didn’t. Everything that happened to us was certainly a shock. The team (West Chester) we beat in the national tournament had beaten us the week before by 42 points.

People ask how did you win that game and I go, huh, coaching. (Big laughter and applause).

They didn’t ask how I lost the first one by 42, of course. (More laughter).

But I accept this honor for all the women who played and coached so many years ago who have been forgotten, who’s scores and skills have never been brought to the fore, but they played for the love of the game.

And so many of these wonderful players as we’ve gone around the last couple of days have talked about the love of the game and our players truly had that.

And for all the people here tonight, I would like to thank all the Immaculata faithful who are here again. So many of my former players. So many of the nuns are here. And the fond memories we have of beating the buckets. You have to be an Immaculata fan to understand that whole story.

The "Bucket Brigade"

One of our player’s fathers had a hardware store and he thought our games were too quiet. So he would bring six buckets and some wooden mallets. And then they’d start beating on the buckets. And as he was leaving, they’d say, Can you bring a couple more buckets next time. So he’d bring a dozen, and then two dozens, and then in our stands we had hundreds of nuns, which, of course, helped us (lots of laughs) in their full habits beating on the buckets, yelling at the referees. (Big laughter).

I’d like to talk about my small part in this basketball juggernaut that started. I’d like to first thank the president of Immaculata College. Just a fabulous woman. She hired me as a 22-year-old junior high school coach and I’m coaching a college team.

And she was a player – she was about 5-10. Twenty-five years later after mass, and you understand we had lots of those before games, lots of masses, Sister Mary of Lourdes, put her hand on my shoulder and said, That first year Cathy. I paid you $500.

And I said, No Sister. You paid me $450. And she said we would have gone to $500. (Big laugh).

Hopefully, there’s a movie coming out and I’ll get to that in a second, but our team, like so many Catholic schools, started with a prayer. And at the end of the prayer there were all these people to pray to, which I didn’t understand – St. Christopher, which became Mr. Christopher. And the other one was Our Lady of Victory pray for us.

And I had teams with my mom, who also was my coach and I said – I played on a church team – and I said, You know these girls start with a prayer and then they play like hell. (Huge laugh).

In Praise of Rush's Stars

Immaculata was led for those first four years by Theresa Shank Grentz. And I made the comment the other day that all of us coaches that are here know that when we have good players, we’re very good coaches.

When we have great players, we’re great coaches.

Theresa Shank Grentz, who used to say she was 5-11 ½, I think she was about 6-1, 6-2, in the regional, national tournament at that time – understand there was no money.

Our 16 teams would play four games in three days. We’d play Friday night, Saturday morning, Saturday night, Sunday morning, so we did not have to pay that extra night’s lodging.

So it was four games in 48 hours. I had eight players. In those four games, Theresa Shank averaged 24 points and 18 rebounds. Plus, in the game that we actually beat the team that beat us by 42 points, Theresa would bring the ball up for us as well.

She is the greatest player, anyone who played in the ‘70s, will say that and I look forward to being here hopefully on this stage. (big applause).

Not to be overlooked are players Rene Portland, who went on to coach for 30 years., and (WNBA Los Angeles Sparks assistant) Marianne Stanley, who cried on the phone to say she couldn’t be here.

Marianne went in to tell her head coach of the Sparks that her coach had made it to the Hall of Fame.

And he said, Great.

And the next day, the coach of the Sparks said my coach (Pat Riley) made it to the Hall of Fame. And being the head coach, Mr. (Michael) Cooper said, assistant coach, you’re staying and I’m going. So Marianne is not here.

But Marianne Stanley played on two national teams as an unbelievable point guard.

You know as coaches we love that center-point guard combination. She was fabulous. She went on to coach three national championships at Old Dominion.

And somebody asked me one time, Do those players coach like you.

And I said, Absolutely not. They’re nothing like me. They are so much more intense and they are dynamic and I couldn’t be more proud of them.

There’s a verse in second Corinthians that talks about the seen and the unseen.

And so often we focus on the seen – the things that are visible to great players, the great passes.

And there’s the unseen. The things that remain that are enternal. And we had a group of women in 1972, eight players went to the national tournament and three couldn’t go. And I would be remiss to not mention them (the three) – Judy Marra, Betty Ann Huffman, and Sue Forsyth O' Grady.

And so many of them are here – Denise Conway Crawford, Theresa Shank Grentz, Dr. Lorie Gable Finelli, Dr. Marie Ligouri Williams, Maureen Stuhlman, Betty Ann Huffman, Sue Forsight O'Grady and Judy Marra – Mrs. Phil Martelli.

Eternal Love

The other unseen quality was love. My players loved one another, loved the school they were in, and that love was returned to us a hundred-fold.

I always said if I was ever depressed – which I’m not – I would go to Immaculata.

Because my name there was Our Mrs. Rush. Our Mrs. Rush. And I thank them all for coming today.

I would like to acknowledge Tim Chamber, Anthony Gargano and Pat Croce who had invested in Our Lady of Victory, which is a dynamite move about this team and hopefully will be released in April in 2009, coincidentally between Final Four and Easter.

I would also like to thank my family and friends.

And I have to mention Ed Rush. Ed and I, you know, are divorced. But Ed was so dynamic in making Immaculata into a media darling.

And I’ll tell a quick story. Ed wanted us to have a media day, which none of us had ever heard of. And I saw my players and said, We’re going to have a media day. Wear stockings and heels, a nice outfit, put your hair up.

Well, we had the girls come in, in nice heels, stockings, and Ed said, Where are their uniforms?.

Now our uniforms were wool. I said, they're at (inaudible.)

And he said, It’s a media day and you need uniforms on your players. So our players ran and got their tunics on with stockings and high heels. (laughter)

And I always credit that for having great attendance at games, so I do thank you (laughter).

I’d like to say a special thank you to my sister Alice, who is here today.

I’ve not been the easiest of people to live with and Alice at one point told me she was praying for my safety.

One year I did 23 cities in 12 weekends doing coaches’ clinics.

And Alice said I pray for your safety. And I thought oh that’s so nice.

Well, she was watching my two boys and her two boys, every weekend of those 12 weekends, knowing that if anything happened, she would have those four boys. (laughter).

My mother who is 89 is not here tonight. Just a fabulous woman who reminded us everything can be done better with a smile on your face. And I thank you mom and I hope you have the right channel on (laughter).

And lastly to my sons Ed Jr. and Michael, who I love dearly. One of the five previous times when I didn’t get into the Hall of Fame, Ed emailed me and said, You know you may not be a Hall of Fame coach, but you’re a Hall of Fame mom.

And thankfully, I can be both. Thank you very much.