For most coaches, 700 victories would be the thing crowning achievement of his or her career.

But North Carolina State coach Kay Yow wasn’t most coaches.

Instead, she will be remembered for her competitive nature on the court and her mild manner off it.

She will be remembered for her integrity, class and unwavering happiness for others' success just as much as when she had success herself.

She will be remembered for giving breast cancer hell for 22 long years, rather than falling victim to it.

Last Saturday, women’s college basketball lost a legend when Yow, 66, lost her battle with cancer.

“She’s one of the original coaches that started the game of women’s basketball,” Michigan coach Kevin Borseth said. “She was in on the ground floor.”

Yow was a fierce and fearless leader on the sideline, accumulating 737 wins over her 38-year coaching run. She was among the pioneers who helped bring women’s college basketball to the forefront of NCAA athletics.

“She started coaching when maybe 10 people came to the game,” Michigan State women’s basketball coach Suzy Merchant said. “We played a game against Wisconsin on Sunday that had 10,000 people at the game. What she did was pave the way for these young girls today to play in front of crowds like that.”

In her 34 years at the helm for the Lady Wolfpack, she defined herself as a coach and mentor. She is one of just six Division-I women’s basketball coaches to have amassed more than 700 victories, joining the impressive ranks of Connecticut coach Geno Auriemma and Tennessee coach Pat Summitt.

Yow’s teams received bids to 20 of 27 NCAA Tournaments, making it to the Final Four in 1998. And she is the only coach who has won a gold medal at both the Olympic Games (1988) and the FIBA World Championships (1986).

“She’s obviously a legend and an icon,” Borseth said. “That goes without saying.”

Fifteen of her former players went on to coach or play in the WNBA, and in 2002, her accomplishments were recognized when Yow became just the fifth female to be inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

Off the court, Yow raised money and awareness for breast cancer by starting the Kay Yow/WBCA Cancer Fund. The charity raises money in conjunction with The V Foundation for Cancer Research started in 1993 to honor former North Carolina State men’s basketball coach Jim Valvano, who passed away from cancer in 1993.

Through Yow’s lengthy campaign against breast cancer, she taught her players the importance of resilience and strength.

“You think your minor knee injury is a problem,” Merchant said. “You think your back hurts. You think your ankle is bothering you. But Kay had poison and chemotherapy in her system and came out and had energy and enthusiasm to fight each day for (her) team. I think that’s a message that transcends every team and program that came into contact with her.”

The longtime general of the Lady Wolfpack leaves a legacy behind her that extends beyond wins or losses. The impact she made in the lives of her players, her staff, her friends and those struggling with cancer will long outlive her records and awards.

“There won’t be another Kay Yow,” Merchant said. “There won’t be another person who has won as many games, who is as dignified and as classy of a person as she is. She’ll be greatly missed.

"She was a friend to many and a mentor to a lot of young women who are going to make a difference in this world, and it’ll be because of her.”