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The Honolulu Advertiser
Updated at 12:20 p.m., Saturday, January 31, 2009

College basketball: Teams, officials honor Yow by wearing pink

Associated Press

From pink whistles to pink warm-up shirts, Kay Yow was honored at women's college basketball games around the country today, the day she was laid to rest.

Yow, the longtime North Carolina State coach, died last Saturday after battling breast cancer for more than two decades. Pink is commonly used by groups that try to raise awareness of the disease and raise funds to help search for a cure.

Kansas and No. 11 Texas A&M wore pink shirts before their game at College Station, Texas, and officials at the Rutgers-South Florida, Oklahoma-Missouri, and Cincinnati-Notre Dame games all used pink whistles.

The Women's Basketball Coaches Association issued a waiver this week to allow teams to wear pink game jerseys, headbands, and shooting shirts to honor Yow until Feb. 22.

N.C. State wore pink trimmed uniforms bearing the name "Yow" on the back and pink shoes before its game on Thursday against Boston College. The Wolfpack also had a pink heart with her last name on it attached to their jerseys.

Teams had already been given permission to wear pink during the week of Feb. 13 to 22 as part of "The Pink Zone" to help raise awareness for breast cancer.

Yow was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1987, yet went on to lead the U.S. Olympic team to the gold medal the next year. She won more than 700 games in her career and was inducted into the Naismith Hall of Fame in 2002.

Yow was 66 when she died. She was buried today in her hometown of Gibsonville, about 70 miles west of N.C. State's campus in Raleigh.