When Kay Yow left Elon to take over several women’s sports teams at N.C. State, she called one of the only people she knew in Raleigh — Nora Lynn Finch. At the time, Finch was the athletic director and basketball coach at Peace College. The two were already close friends, having started a basketball camp together, and would become roommates.
In 1977, Yow needed another full-time employee to help her run the volleyball, softball and women’s basketball programs. Athletic director Willis Casey agreed, and Finch was hired that year. More than three decades later, Yow and Finch are still working together. Except now, the dozen women’s varsity teams at State have renovated facilities, full staffs and budgets to meet their goals.
Finch said she and Yow helped give birth to women’s sports at N.C. State.
“We grew this program together,” Finch said. “We were the first women’s administrators for N.C. State.”
On Monday, July 7, the ACC announced it would be hiring Finch as its Associate Commissioner for women’s basketball operations and as its Senior Woman Administrator. The move ends Finch’s 31-year tenure at N.C. State. Finch said it was an opportunity that was only made possible by her time with the Wolfpack.
“I am very excited about it,” Finch said. “I am realistic to know that positions like that come by seldom. They are not open often. It is because of the experiences N.C. State has afforded me that I am able to take a job like this.”
At State, Finch served as the Senior Associate Director and Senior Woman Administrator. She also was responsible for the administration of women’s basketball, men and women’s golf, men’s soccer, postseason appearances, and Athletics equipment room operations.
In 1981, Finch was named chair of the inaugural NCAA Division I women’s basketball committee — a position she held until 1988. She has been inducted into the National Women’s Athletic Hall of Fame and was given the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association its first Special Recognition Award for Athletics Administrators in 1987.
Women’s golf coach Page Marsh said the success she’s had in building her program can be attributed to the foundations Finch laid decades before.
“I got to the athletic department when I had a fully funded budget and a golf course coming,” Marsh said. “Nora Lynn, she’s the one that was really a pioneer for those of us that came after her. We’ve really just gotten to reap the benefits of her first efforts.”
According to Marsh, for those that know Finch, it is an exciting opportunity she is accepting, but it is difficult to see her leave the Wolfpack family.
“We all just wish Nora Lynn the best,” Marsh said. “I certainly have mixed emotions.”
Finch said although she will now be working at the ACC headquarters in Greensboro, she will visit her friends on campus regularly.
“I am still going to be on this campus, and every time I walk on this campus, especially in the hallowed halls of Reynolds Coliseum, I am going to feel very much at home,” Finch said.
