The McGraw hire, 1987

1987 – 1988

The woman: Muffet McGraw was born Ann O'Brien on December 5, 1955, in Pottsville, Pennsylvania, and raised in West Chester, Pennsylvania — the university's biography calls her a native of West Chester, and the two placings stand as the sources give them: born in Pottsville, raised in West Chester. She played at Saint Joseph's in Philadelphia from 1974 to 1977, in the first years of that program too, and played professionally, briefly, for the California Dreams of the Women's Professional Basketball League in 1979–80.

The apprenticeship: She coached Archbishop Carroll High School from 1977 to 1979, assisted at Saint Joseph's from 1980 to 1982, and took her first college head-coaching job at Lehigh in 1982. In five seasons there she went 88–41 — the figure the arithmetic of her career totals gives, and the one Lehigh's record carries — and coached, among others, a young player named Cathy Engelbert, who would become commissioner of the WNBA.

The hire: Notre Dame announced her hiring on May 18, 1987, under athletic director Gene Corrigan. She was the program's third head coach, thirty-one years old, taking over a team that had won two conference titles in a minor league and had never played in the NCAA tournament. The post she took now carries an endowed name — the Karen and Kevin Keyes Family Head Coach — and she would hold it for thirty-three seasons.

The first season: Her first team went 20–8 in the program's last North Star season, and on February 6, 1988, won at seventeenth-ranked Duke — the program's first win over a nationally ranked team. McGraw was the conference's coach of the year that season, an honor she would collect in five different leagues across her career.

Sources:

1. University biography of Muffet McGraw (fightingirish.com) — the West Chester placing; the Saint Joseph's playing career; the May 18, 1987 hire under Gene Corrigan; the Keyes family endowed title.
2. Hall of Fame and biographical records — the December 5, 1955 birth in Pottsville; the California Dreams season; the Carroll and Lehigh coaching stops; Engelbert among her Lehigh players.
3. University media guide and record book — the 1987–88 season (20–8); the February 6, 1988 win at Duke.