Hall of Fame well deserved

The Charlottesville Daily Progress
Published: June 16, 2008

Debbie Ryan has been in our Hall of Fame for years.

Now, the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame has formally acknowledged what we in Charlottesville already know: Debbie Ryan is a treasure.

Ms. Ryan has coached the Cavaliers for 31 years now and has built a consistent record for excellence.

Her teams have made it to the NCAA tournament 22 times, to the Sweet Sixteen 12 times and to the Final Four three times. She holds several ACC records (for instance, she hit 450 wins faster than any other coach in the conference, male or female). Her overall record now stands at 675 wins.

Ms. Ryan’s coaching excellence has been called into play on a larger stage. In 2003, she coached the USA team to a silver medal at the Pan American Games. In 2001, she coached the USA gold-medal-winning team in the World University Games. In 1988, she coached the U.S. Junior National Team that earned a berth in the world championships (see http://www.virginiasports.com for Ms. Ryan’s biography).

Her influence also extends well beyond coaching. Her players have gone into the world well prepared for leadership and excellence in their own fields. Some have stepped up to the professional ranks and have gone on to become coaches. Others have been successful in business and the professions.

And while Debbie Ryan was doing all this — simply by concentrating on her players and students — she was also influencing history. Her efforts became part of the growth of women’s sports, and the excellence she displayed in her work helped set the standard for women’s collegiate basketball. While some critics doubted the value of equal support for athletics for women, she and other pioneering coaches helped prove them wrong.

And then there’s her humanitarian work, her service to other cancer survivors, her status as a symbol of hope. Ms. Ryan is a survivor of pancreatic cancer, a typically aggressive disease. It took the life of another local icon, state Sen. Emily Couric, with whom Ms. Ryan partnered for cancer fundraising and education while the senator was still with us.

At her Hall of Fame induction ceremony, Debbie Ryan was typically modest, and grateful. “That I’ve been given the chance to be here and experience this… . What can I say? It’s extraordinary.”

Being a cancer survivor puts everything else in perspective, she said.

The Daily Progress story (June 15)  about her induction, which contained this quoted, carried the headline: “Living legend: Ryan inducted.”

That headline was doubly apropos: Debbie Ryan is a legend.

But more importantly, she’s living.

And all of greater Charlottesville is grateful, too, that our Hall of Famer is not just surviving, but thriving.