EHTnative Cathy Rush enters Basketball Hall of Fame on 6th try
By JOHN O'KANE
For The Press, 609-272-7210
Published: Tuesday, April 08, 2008
Cathy Rush, a women's college basketball pioneer with southern New Jersey roots, is headed to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.Rush, an Egg Harbor Township native and 1964 Oakcrest High School graduate, got in on her sixth try. Rush, who won three AIAW titles at Immaculata College, also was nominated in 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2005.She joins coach Pat Riley, broadcaster Dick Vitale, former NBA players Patrick Ewing, Hakeem Olajuwon and Adrian Dantley and Detroit Pistons owner Bill Davidson in the Class of 2008.Rush and the rest of tThe Class of 2008 will be enshrined Sept. 4-6 at the Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass.
"Being here with coaches and players, all of us coaches know that we're good coaches when we have good players, and we're great coaches when we have great players," Rush said Monday in San Antonio. "And I had some great players."Immaculata, at the time an all-women's Catholic school in Pennsylvania with a student population of 550 at the time, won its first Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women title in 1972.Rush and the Mighty Macs then won the next two.Rush, 61, went 149-15 (.908) in seven seasons with the program.Immaculata was the first women's team to appear on national television and once played in front of 12,000 at Madison Square Garden.The story of Immaculata remains so intriguing that it will be featured in an upcoming movie titled "Our Lady of Victory."Rush has influenced players and coaches for generations from around the country, ranging from Saint Joseph's men's coach Phil Martelli to Connecticut women's coach Geno Auriemma."She's the first woman of girls basketball," former longtime Mainland Regional coach Karl Geisinger said. "When you think of girls basketball, she's the first person you should think of."Geisinger was new to girls basketball in 1982 when he took a van ride with six girls from his team to Rush's Future Stars Camp in Pennsylvania.In 2007, after 25 years and 400 wins, Geisinger left the Mustangs as one of the winningest coaches in southern New Jersey history and says Rush was instrumental in his success."She brought girls basketball to the forefront," Geisinger said. "She's a great person. More than just basketball, she's just a really nice lady."Rush's list of accomplishments is impressive: She coached the 1975 U.S. women's basketball team at the Pan American Games to a gold medal, is a member of the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame, is one of only six members of the prestigious Philadelphia Big 5 Hall of Fame not to coach or play at a member school, a member of the U.S. Olympic Committee of women's basketball and is a breast cancer survivor.For more information on Rush, go to CathyRush.com.(The Associated Press contributed to this report.)To e-mail John O'Kane at The Press:JO'Kane@pressofac.com
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