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You know the Kay Yow who publicly battled cancer with the same spirit as she coached basketball.

You know the Kay Yow who earned a spot in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, brought home five ACC championships and four ACC tournament titles and sent the N.C. State women's team to the NCAA tournament 20 times. And don't forget, helped the United States win two Olympic gold medals.

There's no question that Yow, who died Saturday at age 66, will be remembered for her contributions to basketball, women's athletics and the fight against breast cancer.

But did you know that Yow, a Gibsonville native, once jumped off a cliff in Greece?

She also published a children's book in 2007. Not surprisingly, it deals with something Yow knew a lot about: perseverance.

"It's just her heart, to teach other people to have that strong will to not give up," said Ken Wheat, 61, a Guilford County principal who was a senior at the former Allen Jay High School in High Point when Yow started her teaching and coaching career there in 1964.

But Yow was always about more than basketball.

She volunteered to drive the Beta Club to a convention in Asheville, even though she wasn't the club's adviser, Wheat said.

Later, when Wheat became a principal at Allen Jay Middle School, Yow would visit the students and not charge a fee, as most speakers do.

She was the only coach to send her players into the stands to speak to his students at ACC tournaments, Wheat said.

At N.C. State, she switched practice times if a player needed a certain class to graduate. She sent birthday and Christmas cards to former players. She put up their children's pictures in her office and called them her grandchildren.

Off the court, she line-danced on team trips, climbed ruins and had her toenails painted with American flags for the Fourth of July.

She made unannounced trips to hospitals to talk to cancer patients.

Yow was a woman of strong faith.

At a class reunion, she told former classmate Charles Hursey that she really wanted to win a national championship, but if she had to choose, she'd rather lead one of her players to God.

"I want people to remember her as a basketball coach," Hursey said. "But her character was so important, too, and her faith."

She was patient and supportive, the type of friend who backed hiring you even when her boss wasn't keen on the idea, said Nora Lynn Finch, the ACC's associate commissioner for women's basketball.

Yow helped get her hired at N.C. State in 1977, Finch said.

"She could see people for who they would be, not for who they are," she said. "And that's a gift."

And then there was basketball.

Classmates at the old Gibsonville High School voted Yow best all-around student and most athletic.

Yow's mother, Lib, who also played at Gibsonville, decided to give up the game after she broke both arms in a backyard game with her daughters.

"The girls don't like to lose," Yow's father, Hilton, said in a 1986 interview. "Their mama doesn't like to lose. Their daddy don't like to lose."

That fighting spirit carried over to her coaching.

"She was as good as the best and better than all the rest," said Earl Danieley, the former president of what is now Elon University, who gave Yow her first coaching job at the college level. "She gave everything, and her players respected her so much they gave everything. You couldn't fail to give your best for Coach Kay."

On the court, coaching, she was a joy to watch, said Peggy Stallings, who grew up with Yow.

"You just feel your chest well with pride," Stallings said. "She does it with style; she does it with grace; she does it with caring.

"I think Kay will always be a part of our lives. I think we'll remember her with great pride and a lot of love."

On Saturday, flags flew at half-staff at Memorial Bell Tower on N.C. State's Raleigh campus, where hundreds of people came to pay their respects throughout the day.

Alongside dozens of flower arrangements, one person left an N.C. State basketball T-shirt with the inscription "Missed but NEVER forgotten ... a legend. Thanks, Coach Yow." Another left a framed copy of a poem titled "When Life Kicks You, Make Sure It Kicks You Forward."

Yow was the kind of woman who inspired all those around her.

"The way she fought brought a lot of pride to Wolfpack Nation," said alumnus Adam Schuett, who remembers Yow surprised him with a "big hug" and a signed picture when he met her years ago while working at The V Foundation. The cancer research foundation was created in honor of former N.C. State men's coach Jim Valvano. The V Foundation and Kay Yow/WBCA Cancer Funds have combined to raise nearly $100 million for cancer research.

Colleagues and friends said Yow faced her cancer as she did any basketball game, she never gave up.

She would say, "You couldn't control all your circumstances in life, but you could control your attitude," Finch said. "She lived what she taught, what she coached."

Staff writer Don Patterson contributed.

Contact Jennifer Fernandez at 373-7064 or jennifer.fernandez@news-record.com