OT: pdenninggolden has passed away (1 year)

[WookieOnRitalin]

Wow. I am stunned. It is sad to see one of longer tenured posters leave us and especially a woman. May God be with her and I hope she rests in peace. Like others have said, I view this forum as extended family. We never want to see any one of us deal with pain, suffering, or leave us prematurely. Patricia will be missed.

[JohnnyKILLroy]

R.I.P.

Truly kind people are rare in this world we were lucky to have had one among us.

[sonny]

Condolences to her family.

Don't forget that pdenninggolden had basketball credentials having been an assistant coach for the UIC men's team (the first woman to do so in college).

Only a brief mention of it here: http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/ ... /index.htm

Wow. I had no idea.

How would we? I dont recall her ever mentioning it.

I recall her mentioning it, but never going into detail, or boasting about it.

[The Explorer]

Condolences to her family, and best wishes to them on recovering from her loss.

[NZB2323]

I remember her always being a positive, funny, fun-loving person. My sincerest sympathies go out to those who knew her well, for this must be a great loss.

[rosetothomas]

My condolence to all of the family members and friends of pdenninggolden.

May you Rest in Peace in the presence God.

You were much loved by people here in our forum.

Thank you for all those great posts.

[VinTheBarber]

Ok Patricias freind Jeanine just sent a email to everyone on in her online mailbox linking them to this thread so they can get a chance to see how loved she was amongst us..

[Electric Slim]

I'll miss her.

[Miltpalaciofanclub]

I know that I am late to this online benediction of one of our most esteemed members, but Pat was truly one of the classiest, most beloved members on this board. Many members here have correctly assessed that she did not have a mean bone in her body. Her interminable support for even the most irascible members shone through our murky, cynical derision and irked our abject judgment.

On a personal note, I hope to take a more genuine interest in the betterment of everyone. I don't intend to fart rainbows, but the mental health that she attained quelled what appeared to be an insurmountable amount of physical pain. She was the Jack Lelaine of optimism, and it is a lifestyle that I can sincerely hope to emulate.

The world has lost a true saint: a kind person that embodied the ethos of a kinder era. We all have much to reflect upon and aspire towards. Let's coax these barriers of cynicism with the same universal solvent that Patricia possessed.

I am deeply saddened by this loss.

[MGB8]

Condolences to her loved ones.

[tenritsu]

Hey everyone.

I found this article on pdenninggolden from the NYT. It's not the full thing, as you have to pay 4 bucks to view it, but I thought people might wanna take a look.

http://www.nytimes.com/1985/12/22/sport ... oneer.html

I'll see what I can do bout getting it.

[IliketheBullsNBearstoo]

A great part of the realgm family, a great poster and I'm sure an even better person. She's already missed.

[dougthonus]

SHORTLY after practice one day last week, Willie Little, the head basketball coach at the University of Illinois at Chicago, recalled the first time he saw his assistant coach, Pat Denning, in action. ''I watched Pat run a team in the Abe Saperstein summer league a few years ago,'' Little said. And how did she do? ''To tell you the truth, it took so long to get over the initial shock that I didn't spend much time observing coaching technique,'' Little said with a smile.

Little was not the only fan so affected. ''I looked into the crowd and it seemed like everyone had their mouth wide open and was staring at me,'' recalled Miss Denning. ''I was some kind of novelty.''

Miss Denning is still some kind of novelty. When Little named her to his staff this fall, she became the first and only woman to coach men's basketball in Division I - a fact of which she was unaware. Mary Fenlon is listed as an assistant coach at Georgetown and, Miss Denning said, ''I was under the misconception that Georgetown's Mary Fenlon was the first, but then I found out she's solely an academic adviser.''

Although Miss Denning's primary responsibility is to make sure the players perform well scholastically, she also has a full range of on-the-court duties - helping Little run practice, discussing strategy and keeping track of fouls during games. ''If I'd have known I'd be the first to do that, I might have stayed away,'' Miss Denning said. ''It's frightening. I didn't want to be a pioneer.'' Miss Denning, 34 years old, is in many ways an unlikely pioneer. A lifelong fan, she never played organized basketball. Until recently, her concerns weren't centered on how to defend against the highly ranked Michigan Wolverines (whom the Flames, 2-4 before last night's game against Michigan State, meet Saturday). Instead, she concerned herself with teaching high school English and completing a master's thesis on literature connected to unionism, in particular the novels of Charles Dickens and Elizabeth Gaskell. The thesis, all that stands between Miss Denning and a master's degree in English literature from Chicago's Roosevelt University, is now on the back burner. ''My adviser is very upset by this turn of events,'' Miss Denning said. ''She thinks I'm crazy.''

There have been times over the past 10 years, when, Miss Denning admits, she thought herself crazy. Teaching English and reading books have always been her true passions; she entered coaching by accident. In 1975, several boys on the basketball team at Wendell Phillips High School in Chicago - that year's Illinois state champions - took her journalism class. Soon they were seeking her advice on choosing colleges. And in 1979, as their college years drew to a close, they asked her to coach their summer team.

The Saperstein league is highly competitive. The 12 teams are made up of top players of all ages, mostly from the Chicago area. Past, present and future National Basketball Association stars fight there for the bragging rights in Chicago. How did Miss Denning, who had never coached at any level (and was the first woman to coach in the league) prepare for the challenge? ''I read John Wooden's book on coaching, Digger Phelps's book on coaching and everything else I could find,'' she said. Her team, which included Robert Byrd, who played on Marquette's 1977 National Collegiate Athletic Association championship squad, helped her with the more technical aspects of the game. ''My best asset was and is working with people, getting the right chemistry,'' said Miss Denning.

By 1982, Miss Denning's team, consisting almost entirely of collegians, won the league championship, conquering among others a unit featuring four N.B.A. players, Mark Aguirre, Isiah Thomas, Sonny Parker and Mickey Johnson. ''We beat them in the quarterfinals,'' Miss Denning recalled. ''They were so mad that they asked for a rematch. They said it wasn't fair because their coach was in Hawaii.'' League officials denied the claim. Aguirre received consolation by being named Player of the Year, and Miss Denning was named Coach of the Year.

When the 1982 school year began, Miss Denning was transferred from inner-city Wendell Phillips to Mather High School on the North Side of Chicago. There, she was again a pioneer, becoming the first woman to coach a boys interscholastic basketball team in the Chicago public league. Although Mather was not the basketball hotbed that Phillips was, Miss Denning's freshman-sophomore teams played .500 or better during her two years as coach. They also raised a few eyebrows. ''It was a shock when we walked into the other team's locker room,'' said Miss Denning.

She was offered the varsity coaching job in 1984, but declined. ''The timing wasn't right, and besides, a colleague had dreamed about getting the job his whole life,'' she said. She returned to Phillips to teach English and work on her master's degree until her husband (a basketball coach and dean of students at the high school) and students who knew of her love for basketball encouraged her to again pursue it.

A telephone call to Little in the spring of 1985 started the most recent turn of events. ''It was like an act of faith,'' Little said. ''I had just been talking to John Thompson about hiring a woman when I heard from Pat.''

Why a woman? ''Most coaches aren't very sensitive,'' Little said. ''A woman can offer another point of view, meet the players' mothering needs. A male coach can listen, but there are things that young men would have a hard time coming to me about. They feel they have to be macho around men and may be afraid to say they don't know about certain things. But they can weep with her.''

Because she meets them in the evenings to supervise their study and coordinate tutoring if necessary, the players actually see more of Miss Denning than they do of Little. They are delighted. ''When Coach Little first told me, I said: 'A woman!' '' said the sophomore guard Eric Longino. ''But she could be the best thing that happened. The pressure of playing can get to you. Sometimes you just need someone you can talk to. She keeps us smiling.'' Miss Denning knows that her ability to motivate and mother rather than her technical skill is what got her the job over the former professional Norm Van Lier and 30 other applicants. ''I don't want to get feminists mad, but yes, I add a softer, more feminine touch,'' she said. ''I try to keep things calm because somebody has to. I'll bring gum or candy for the players, and if Coach Little says we're going to have a Christmas practice, I'll say let's at least have a party.''

Little took over as head coach at the school of 17,500 undergraduates in 1983 and immediately guided the Flames to their first 20-victory season. He said he has been impressed by Miss Denning's contributions both on and off the court, but added that the new coach still has much to learn.

''When we played at Northwestern, she thought the officiating wasn't fair,'' he said. ''I'll take that kind of officiating on the road any time. She uses the word 'fair' a lot. As a coach on this level, you don't use 'fair.' This is a business. She's walking around like Mary Poppins now. But wait until we go to Michigan and there are 15,000 fans calling me the son of a dog and calling her things, too.''

Miss Denning, who said she has no ambition to be a head coach, acknowledged that the world of Division I basketball is far removed from the world of literature. ''At times, I think I'm nuts,'' she said. ''I should be teaching kids the story of Oedipus or 'Richard Cory.' But there are other times I think I could really learn to love this.''

SHORTLY after practice one day last week, Willie Little, the head basketball coach at the University of Illinois at Chicago, recalled the first time he saw his assistant coach, Pat Denning, in action. ''I watched Pat run a team in the Abe Saperstein summer league a few years ago,'' Little said. And how did she do? ''To tell you the truth, it took so long to get over the initial shock that I didn't spend much time observing coaching technique,'' Little said with a smile.

Little was not the only fan so affected. ''I looked into the crowd and it seemed like everyone had their mouth wide open and was staring at me,'' recalled Miss Denning. ''I was some kind of novelty.''

Miss Denning is still some kind of novelty. When Little named her to his staff this fall, she became the first and only woman to coach men's basketball in Division I - a fact of which she was unaware. Mary Fenlon is listed as an assistant coach at Georgetown and, Miss Denning said, ''I was under the misconception that Georgetown's Mary Fenlon was the first, but then I found out she's solely an academic adviser.''

Although Miss Denning's primary responsibility is to make sure the players perform well scholastically, she also has a full range of on-the-court duties - helping Little run practice, discussing strategy and keeping track of fouls during games. ''If I'd have known I'd be the first to do that, I might have stayed away,'' Miss Denning said. ''It's frightening. I didn't want to be a pioneer.'' Miss Denning, 34 years old, is in many ways an unlikely pioneer. A lifelong fan, she never played organized basketball. Until recently, her concerns weren't centered on how to defend against the highly ranked Michigan Wolverines (whom the Flames, 2-4 before last night's game against Michigan State, meet Saturday). Instead, she concerned herself with teaching high school English and completing a master's thesis on literature connected to unionism, in particular the novels of Charles Dickens and Elizabeth Gaskell. The thesis, all that stands between Miss Denning and a master's degree in English literature from Chicago's Roosevelt University, is now on the back burner. ''My adviser is very upset by this turn of events,'' Miss Denning said. ''She thinks I'm crazy.''

There have been times over the past 10 years, when, Miss Denning admits, she thought herself crazy. Teaching English and reading books have always been her true passions; she entered coaching by accident. In 1975, several boys on the basketball team at Wendell Phillips High School in Chicago - that year's Illinois state champions - took her journalism class. Soon they were seeking her advice on choosing colleges. And in 1979, as their college years drew to a close, they asked her to coach their summer team.

The Saperstein league is highly competitive. The 12 teams are made up of top players of all ages, mostly from the Chicago area. Past, present and future National Basketball Association stars fight there for the bragging rights in Chicago. How did Miss Denning, who had never coached at any level (and was the first woman to coach in the league) prepare for the challenge? ''I read John Wooden's book on coaching, Digger Phelps's book on coaching and everything else I could find,'' she said. Her team, which included Robert Byrd, who played on Marquette's 1977 National Collegiate Athletic Association championship squad, helped her with the more technical aspects of the game. ''My best asset was and is working with people, getting the right chemistry,'' said Miss Denning.

By 1982, Miss Denning's team, consisting almost entirely of collegians, won the league championship, conquering among others a unit featuring four N.B.A. players, Mark Aguirre, Isiah Thomas, Sonny Parker and Mickey Johnson. ''We beat them in the quarterfinals,'' Miss Denning recalled. ''They were so mad that they asked for a rematch. They said it wasn't fair because their coach was in Hawaii.'' League officials denied the claim. Aguirre received consolation by being named Player of the Year, and Miss Denning was named Coach of the Year.

When the 1982 school year began, Miss Denning was transferred from inner-city Wendell Phillips to Mather High School on the North Side of Chicago. There, she was again a pioneer, becoming the first woman to coach a boys interscholastic basketball team in the Chicago public league. Although Mather was not the basketball hotbed that Phillips was, Miss Denning's freshman-sophomore teams played .500 or better during her two years as coach. They also raised a few eyebrows. ''It was a shock when we walked into the other team's locker room,'' said Miss Denning.

She was offered the varsity coaching job in 1984, but declined. ''The timing wasn't right, and besides, a colleague had dreamed about getting the job his whole life,'' she said. She returned to Phillips to teach English and work on her master's degree until her husband (a basketball coach and dean of students at the high school) and students who knew of her love for basketball encouraged her to again pursue it.

A telephone call to Little in the spring of 1985 started the most recent turn of events. ''It was like an act of faith,'' Little said. ''I had just been talking to John Thompson about hiring a woman when I heard from Pat.''

Why a woman? ''Most coaches aren't very sensitive,'' Little said. ''A woman can offer another point of view, meet the players' mothering needs. A male coach can listen, but there are things that young men would have a hard time coming to me about. They feel they have to be macho around men and may be afraid to say they don't know about certain things. But they can weep with her.''

Because she meets them in the evenings to supervise their study and coordinate tutoring if necessary, the players actually see more of Miss Denning than they do of Little. They are delighted. ''When Coach Little first told me, I said: 'A woman!' '' said the sophomore guard Eric Longino. ''But she could be the best thing that happened. The pressure of playing can get to you. Sometimes you just need someone you can talk to. She keeps us smiling.'' Miss Denning knows that her ability to motivate and mother rather than her technical skill is what got her the job over the former professional Norm Van Lier and 30 other applicants. ''I don't want to get feminists mad, but yes, I add a softer, more feminine touch,'' she said. ''I try to keep things calm because somebody has to. I'll bring gum or candy for the players, and if Coach Little says we're going to have a Christmas practice, I'll say let's at least have a party.''

Little took over as head coach at the school of 17,500 undergraduates in 1983 and immediately guided the Flames to their first 20-victory season. He said he has been impressed by Miss Denning's contributions both on and off the court, but added that the new coach still has much to learn.

''When we played at Northwestern, she thought the officiating wasn't fair,'' he said. ''I'll take that kind of officiating on the road any time. She uses the word 'fair' a lot. As a coach on this level, you don't use 'fair.' This is a business. She's walking around like Mary Poppins now. But wait until we go to Michigan and there are 15,000 fans calling me the son of a dog and calling her things, too.''

Miss Denning, who said she has no ambition to be a head coach, acknowledged that the world of Division I basketball is far removed from the world of literature. ''At times, I think I'm nuts,'' she said. ''I should be teaching kids the story of Oedipus or 'Richard Cory.' But there are other times I think I could really learn to love this.''

[Wingy]

Great article. As always, thank you Doug.

[League Circles]

Man I haven't been able to follow the whole thread but just by reading this article you've posted Doug, it seems like we've really lost not just a great, positive person who was struggling with health, but we've lost an absolute pioneer in the world of basketball, who was also an extremely accomplished teacher and academic. I'm greatly impressed. Again, rest in peace Patricia, you'll be missed.

[Mr. Tibbs]

man, that article..wow. I can't believe someone with a pedigree like that treated us bums like family. I'm just interested to learn more now

[Benedict Miller]

This sucks...I never knew about her accomplshments, but I've always respected her opinions and knowledge of the game of basketball...RIP...her and her family's in my prayers.

[Polynice4Pippen]

SHORTLY after practice one day last week, Willie Little, the head basketball coach at the University of Illinois at Chicago, recalled the first time he saw his assistant coach, Pat Denning, in action. ''I watched Pat run a team in the Abe Saperstein summer league a few years ago,'' Little said. And how did she do? ''To tell you the truth, it took so long to get over the initial shock that I didn't spend much time observing coaching technique,'' Little said with a smile.

Little was not the only fan so affected. ''I looked into the crowd and it seemed like everyone had their mouth wide open and was staring at me,'' recalled Miss Denning. ''I was some kind of novelty.''

Miss Denning is still some kind of novelty. When Little named her to his staff this fall, she became the first and only woman to coach men's basketball in Division I - a fact of which she was unaware. Mary Fenlon is listed as an assistant coach at Georgetown and, Miss Denning said, ''I was under the misconception that Georgetown's Mary Fenlon was the first, but then I found out she's solely an academic adviser.''

Although Miss Denning's primary responsibility is to make sure the players perform well scholastically, she also has a full range of on-the-court duties - helping Little run practice, discussing strategy and keeping track of fouls during games. ''If I'd have known I'd be the first to do that, I might have stayed away,'' Miss Denning said. ''It's frightening. I didn't want to be a pioneer.'' Miss Denning, 34 years old, is in many ways an unlikely pioneer. A lifelong fan, she never played organized basketball. Until recently, her concerns weren't centered on how to defend against the highly ranked Michigan Wolverines (whom the Flames, 2-4 before last night's game against Michigan State, meet Saturday). Instead, she concerned herself with teaching high school English and completing a master's thesis on literature connected to unionism, in particular the novels of Charles Dickens and Elizabeth Gaskell. The thesis, all that stands between Miss Denning and a master's degree in English literature from Chicago's Roosevelt University, is now on the back burner. ''My adviser is very upset by this turn of events,'' Miss Denning said. ''She thinks I'm crazy.''

There have been times over the past 10 years, when, Miss Denning admits, she thought herself crazy. Teaching English and reading books have always been her true passions; she entered coaching by accident. In 1975, several boys on the basketball team at Wendell Phillips High School in Chicago - that year's Illinois state champions - took her journalism class. Soon they were seeking her advice on choosing colleges. And in 1979, as their college years drew to a close, they asked her to coach their summer team.

The Saperstein league is highly competitive. The 12 teams are made up of top players of all ages, mostly from the Chicago area. Past, present and future National Basketball Association stars fight there for the bragging rights in Chicago. How did Miss Denning, who had never coached at any level (and was the first woman to coach in the league) prepare for the challenge? ''I read John Wooden's book on coaching, Digger Phelps's book on coaching and everything else I could find,'' she said. Her team, which included Robert Byrd, who played on Marquette's 1977 National Collegiate Athletic Association championship squad, helped her with the more technical aspects of the game. ''My best asset was and is working with people, getting the right chemistry,'' said Miss Denning.

By 1982, Miss Denning's team, consisting almost entirely of collegians, won the league championship, conquering among others a unit featuring four N.B.A. players, Mark Aguirre, Isiah Thomas, Sonny Parker and Mickey Johnson. ''We beat them in the quarterfinals,'' Miss Denning recalled. ''They were so mad that they asked for a rematch. They said it wasn't fair because their coach was in Hawaii.'' League officials denied the claim. Aguirre received consolation by being named Player of the Year, and Miss Denning was named Coach of the Year.

When the 1982 school year began, Miss Denning was transferred from inner-city Wendell Phillips to Mather High School on the North Side of Chicago. There, she was again a pioneer, becoming the first woman to coach a boys interscholastic basketball team in the Chicago public league. Although Mather was not the basketball hotbed that Phillips was, Miss Denning's freshman-sophomore teams played .500 or better during her two years as coach. They also raised a few eyebrows. ''It was a shock when we walked into the other team's locker room,'' said Miss Denning.

She was offered the varsity coaching job in 1984, but declined. ''The timing wasn't right, and besides, a colleague had dreamed about getting the job his whole life,'' she said. She returned to Phillips to teach English and work on her master's degree until her husband (a basketball coach and dean of students at the high school) and students who knew of her love for basketball encouraged her to again pursue it.

A telephone call to Little in the spring of 1985 started the most recent turn of events. ''It was like an act of faith,'' Little said. ''I had just been talking to John Thompson about hiring a woman when I heard from Pat.''

Why a woman? ''Most coaches aren't very sensitive,'' Little said. ''A woman can offer another point of view, meet the players' mothering needs. A male coach can listen, but there are things that young men would have a hard time coming to me about. They feel they have to be macho around men and may be afraid to say they don't know about certain things. But they can weep with her.''

Because she meets them in the evenings to supervise their study and coordinate tutoring if necessary, the players actually see more of Miss Denning than they do of Little. They are delighted. ''When Coach Little first told me, I said: 'A woman!' '' said the sophomore guard Eric Longino. ''But she could be the best thing that happened. The pressure of playing can get to you. Sometimes you just need someone you can talk to. She keeps us smiling.'' Miss Denning knows that her ability to motivate and mother rather than her technical skill is what got her the job over the former professional Norm Van Lier and 30 other applicants. ''I don't want to get feminists mad, but yes, I add a softer, more feminine touch,'' she said. ''I try to keep things calm because somebody has to. I'll bring gum or candy for the players, and if Coach Little says we're going to have a Christmas practice, I'll say let's at least have a party.''

Little took over as head coach at the school of 17,500 undergraduates in 1983 and immediately guided the Flames to their first 20-victory season. He said he has been impressed by Miss Denning's contributions both on and off the court, but added that the new coach still has much to learn.

''When we played at Northwestern, she thought the officiating wasn't fair,'' he said. ''I'll take that kind of officiating on the road any time. She uses the word 'fair' a lot. As a coach on this level, you don't use 'fair.' This is a business. She's walking around like Mary Poppins now. But wait until we go to Michigan and there are 15,000 fans calling me the son of a dog and calling her things, too.''

Miss Denning, who said she has no ambition to be a head coach, acknowledged that the world of Division I basketball is far removed from the world of literature. ''At times, I think I'm nuts,'' she said. ''I should be teaching kids the story of Oedipus or 'Richard Cory.' But there are other times I think I could really learn to love this.''

SHORTLY after practice one day last week, Willie Little, the head basketball coach at the University of Illinois at Chicago, recalled the first time he saw his assistant coach, Pat Denning, in action. ''I watched Pat run a team in the Abe Saperstein summer league a few years ago,'' Little said. And how did she do? ''To tell you the truth, it took so long to get over the initial shock that I didn't spend much time observing coaching technique,'' Little said with a smile.

Little was not the only fan so affected. ''I looked into the crowd and it seemed like everyone had their mouth wide open and was staring at me,'' recalled Miss Denning. ''I was some kind of novelty.''

Miss Denning is still some kind of novelty. When Little named her to his staff this fall, she became the first and only woman to coach men's basketball in Division I - a fact of which she was unaware. Mary Fenlon is listed as an assistant coach at Georgetown and, Miss Denning said, ''I was under the misconception that Georgetown's Mary Fenlon was the first, but then I found out she's solely an academic adviser.''

Although Miss Denning's primary responsibility is to make sure the players perform well scholastically, she also has a full range of on-the-court duties - helping Little run practice, discussing strategy and keeping track of fouls during games. ''If I'd have known I'd be the first to do that, I might have stayed away,'' Miss Denning said. ''It's frightening. I didn't want to be a pioneer.'' Miss Denning, 34 years old, is in many ways an unlikely pioneer. A lifelong fan, she never played organized basketball. Until recently, her concerns weren't centered on how to defend against the highly ranked Michigan Wolverines (whom the Flames, 2-4 before last night's game against Michigan State, meet Saturday). Instead, she concerned herself with teaching high school English and completing a master's thesis on literature connected to unionism, in particular the novels of Charles Dickens and Elizabeth Gaskell. The thesis, all that stands between Miss Denning and a master's degree in English literature from Chicago's Roosevelt University, is now on the back burner. ''My adviser is very upset by this turn of events,'' Miss Denning said. ''She thinks I'm crazy.''

There have been times over the past 10 years, when, Miss Denning admits, she thought herself crazy. Teaching English and reading books have always been her true passions; she entered coaching by accident. In 1975, several boys on the basketball team at Wendell Phillips High School in Chicago - that year's Illinois state champions - took her journalism class. Soon they were seeking her advice on choosing colleges. And in 1979, as their college years drew to a close, they asked her to coach their summer team.

The Saperstein league is highly competitive. The 12 teams are made up of top players of all ages, mostly from the Chicago area. Past, present and future National Basketball Association stars fight there for the bragging rights in Chicago. How did Miss Denning, who had never coached at any level (and was the first woman to coach in the league) prepare for the challenge? ''I read John Wooden's book on coaching, Digger Phelps's book on coaching and everything else I could find,'' she said. Her team, which included Robert Byrd, who played on Marquette's 1977 National Collegiate Athletic Association championship squad, helped her with the more technical aspects of the game. ''My best asset was and is working with people, getting the right chemistry,'' said Miss Denning.

By 1982, Miss Denning's team, consisting almost entirely of collegians, won the league championship, conquering among others a unit featuring four N.B.A. players, Mark Aguirre, Isiah Thomas, Sonny Parker and Mickey Johnson. ''We beat them in the quarterfinals,'' Miss Denning recalled. ''They were so mad that they asked for a rematch. They said it wasn't fair because their coach was in Hawaii.'' League officials denied the claim. Aguirre received consolation by being named Player of the Year, and Miss Denning was named Coach of the Year.

When the 1982 school year began, Miss Denning was transferred from inner-city Wendell Phillips to Mather High School on the North Side of Chicago. There, she was again a pioneer, becoming the first woman to coach a boys interscholastic basketball team in the Chicago public league. Although Mather was not the basketball hotbed that Phillips was, Miss Denning's freshman-sophomore teams played .500 or better during her two years as coach. They also raised a few eyebrows. ''It was a shock when we walked into the other team's locker room,'' said Miss Denning.

She was offered the varsity coaching job in 1984, but declined. ''The timing wasn't right, and besides, a colleague had dreamed about getting the job his whole life,'' she said. She returned to Phillips to teach English and work on her master's degree until her husband (a basketball coach and dean of students at the high school) and students who knew of her love for basketball encouraged her to again pursue it.

A telephone call to Little in the spring of 1985 started the most recent turn of events. ''It was like an act of faith,'' Little said. ''I had just been talking to John Thompson about hiring a woman when I heard from Pat.''

Why a woman? ''Most coaches aren't very sensitive,'' Little said. ''A woman can offer another point of view, meet the players' mothering needs. A male coach can listen, but there are things that young men would have a hard time coming to me about. They feel they have to be macho around men and may be afraid to say they don't know about certain things. But they can weep with her.''

Because she meets them in the evenings to supervise their study and coordinate tutoring if necessary, the players actually see more of Miss Denning than they do of Little. They are delighted. ''When Coach Little first told me, I said: 'A woman!' '' said the sophomore guard Eric Longino. ''But she could be the best thing that happened. The pressure of playing can get to you. Sometimes you just need someone you can talk to. She keeps us smiling.'' Miss Denning knows that her ability to motivate and mother rather than her technical skill is what got her the job over the former professional Norm Van Lier and 30 other applicants. ''I don't want to get feminists mad, but yes, I add a softer, more feminine touch,'' she said. ''I try to keep things calm because somebody has to. I'll bring gum or candy for the players, and if Coach Little says we're going to have a Christmas practice, I'll say let's at least have a party.''

Little took over as head coach at the school of 17,500 undergraduates in 1983 and immediately guided the Flames to their first 20-victory season. He said he has been impressed by Miss Denning's contributions both on and off the court, but added that the new coach still has much to learn.

''When we played at Northwestern, she thought the officiating wasn't fair,'' he said. ''I'll take that kind of officiating on the road any time. She uses the word 'fair' a lot. As a coach on this level, you don't use 'fair.' This is a business. She's walking around like Mary Poppins now. But wait until we go to Michigan and there are 15,000 fans calling me the son of a dog and calling her things, too.''

Miss Denning, who said she has no ambition to be a head coach, acknowledged that the world of Division I basketball is far removed from the world of literature. ''At times, I think I'm nuts,'' she said. ''I should be teaching kids the story of Oedipus or 'Richard Cory.' But there are other times I think I could really learn to love this.''

Amazing. Simply amazing.

[The 6ft Hurdle]

I didn't realize till today that she was WWJPAT in the days of AOL Message boarding, a little post-MJ. WOW.

That was a really different time of online community-making, but in the middle of the endless barrage of ad hominem wars, I remember her being one of the more balanced posters even back then.

We kind of lost a giant here, and we didn't know it!

[HINrichPolice]

Wow. So humble but yet such a big figure. I wonder if someone could get KC, Sam, or some other Chicago basketball writer to do an article about her. I'd love to hear and learn more.