Philly Sports Hall of Fame: The Guru’s Program Bio of Notre Dame Coach Muffet McGraw

Guru’s note: It wasn’t all play for inductee Guru Thursday night. Here’s the printed program bio piece written in advance. 

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

In the sports world, as well as other mediums, there are personalities whose exploits become so known to the overall public, or at least the public in specific sectors, that both their first and last names are no longer needed for familiarity.

Actually, some of those who have previously earned induction into the Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame have long held that acclaim — past honorees like Zink, and Eric, Speedy, and Moses, and Merrill, and Harry and Richie, to name a few.

And tonight there are a few more.

For a long time in women’s basketball, the two most prominent individuals among coaches holding that one-name distinction were Pat, as in Tennessee legend Pat Summitt and, Geno, as in past Philly inductee and University of Connecticut coach Geno Auriemma.

But tonight, being welcomed here is a former local star on the court who in recent years has edged those two notables aside to take her rightful place with similar notoriety — Muffet.

That would be “Muffet,” as in former Saint Joseph’s standout Muffet McGraw, who competed in the mid-1970s on the initial Hawks women’s squad in her pre-marital life as Anne O’Brien.

 She then went on to such success coaching Notre Dame into a national power that in South Bend these days one is likely to hear a one-name reference to Muffet even more so than Rudy, the football walk-on whose life was depicted in the popular movie.

McGraw will admit that her nickname is drawn from the nursery rhyme, but to this day the reason she earned it is on a need to know basis, a group that may only include two or three people.

One poignant event that McGraw never discussed for public knowledge until early last month was how fate intervened in 2001 and upon the suggestion of one of her assistants, who was also recruiting nearby in New England, she joined him intending to catch a flight home from Rhode Island.

 Thus unwittingly she avoided being on the flight from Boston that was hijacked and piloted into the World Trade Center as part of the terrorist attack on Sept. 11.

Back here in current times, it’s been busy even before next week’s season tipoff for McGraw, the native of Pottsville, who grew up in West Chester. A few weeks ago she received the Lapchick Character Award in New York, which also went to Villanova NCAA men’s basketball championship coach Jay Wright, another recipient.

When it comes to her own triumphs, if opponents were to play the Irish in a Women’s Final Four title game, it would be wise for them to make sure the contest is not being played on Easter Sunday.

Last spring, McGraw’s bunch completed the most memorable weekend in Women’s Final Four history when Arike Ogunbowale hit a game-winner as time expired over Mississippi State for the championship.

The triumph exactly followed to the date 17 years earlier, also on April 1, 2001, when the Irish claimed their first Notre Dame title, which was built on a dramatic second-half rally over UConn in the semifinals. 

Just 48 hours earlier last April, Agunbowale also hit a game-winner in overtime in the semifinals, which again brought down a heavily-favored Connecticut squad, this one unbeaten.

The Irish were the first to rally from double digits deficits in both games, including 15 points in the championship.

That Notre Dame (35-3) even survived the season to get to Columbus, Ohio, was a remarkable conclusion and one of the best coaching jobs, period, ever in coping with a slew of roster-depleting knee injuries as McGraw became one of six women’s coaches to own multiple NCAA titles.

McGraw first joined the coaching ranks, steering Archbishop Carroll to a 50-3 mark from 1977-79, including the Catholic League title with a 28-0 mark the second of those two seasons.

“Knowing I loved the game and was a sociology major, a job opened at Archbishop Carroll and I thought what a great way to see if I liked it or not,” McGraw recalled a year ago prior to her Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame induction.

 Following her Carroll stint, McGraw headed back to her alma mater for a few seasons under Jim Foster as an assistant, believe it or not, succeeding Auriemma.

“It is ironic that Jim’s first two early years assistants would be us for what we became in our careers,” she noted.

Foster, who retired from Chattanooga last summer, says of McGraw, “She learned how to grow with the game and was always looking at: What else do we do? Who else can I be?”

 Then it was on to a head coaching position at the collegiate level where McGraw first spent several seasons compiling 88 wins at Lehigh before arriving at Notre Dame, where in 32 seasons she has won 800 games for an 888 total.

The number of wins is eighth all-time in Division I among women and she is likely to be the fourth fastest to get 900 victories.

How’s this for elite company? 

She is one of five men’s and women’s coaches with more than 875 triumphs, eight Final Fours and multiple NCAA titles joining Summitt and Auriemma from the women’s side and North Carolina’s Dean Smith and Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski from the men’s.

With 351 Associated Press women’s poll appearances in its 748-week, 42-year history that began in November, 1976, McGraw is 10th overall and seventh on the active list of coaches. 

Following UConn, which is a perfect 165 weeks in each category this decade, Notre Dame is second in Top 10 and Top Five appearances since the first week of 2010. 

Despite the long acclaim guiding the Irish, McGraw, also a Women’s Basketball Hall of Famer, still feels strongest for her home town, which is why tonight’s honor is so special to her.

In fact, when Notre Dame left the Big East, which included annual trips to Villanova, for the Atlantic Coast Conference, McGraw has continued to bring her team back to town.

“I’m not giving up those homecomings,” she said. “I’m going to call Penn, I’m going to call my alma mater, though I don’t think I’ll be rushing to still play the Wildcats.”

There is a lot of irony between the Hawks and Irish in McGraw’s life.

Last spring, Jill Bodensteiner, who had been McGraw’s immediate athletic administrator, became the first female athletic director on Hawk Hill succeeding the long-time AD Don DiJulia after his retirement.

“Playing at St. Joe’s gave me a pure love for the game, which I still have,” McGraw has often said. “I wouldn’t be where I am if it wasn’t for my experiences at Saint Joe’s.”

And it was in Hagan Arena, then named Alumni Memorial Fieldhouse, that in late 1990 in the Texaco-Hawk Classic that Notre Dame upset then powerhouse No. 11 Louisiana Tech and Saint Joe’s for the holiday tourney title, earning the Irish’s first appearance in the weekly AP women’s poll.

Since then, the rest has been all Muffet’s history and now she’s a Philadelphia Sports Hall of Famer.