Ģ������Ƶ

 Ģ������ƵStories      January 21, 2025

By Cam Adams

Ģ������Ƶ alumna Nora Lynn Finch sat behind her friend, Kay Yow, honored to introduce her in the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame Class of 1989 induction ceremony. But before the ceremony began, Finch was approached by an unknown gentleman.

“Who are you and why are you here,” he asked. Finch told him she was there to introduce the long-time North Carolina State University women’s basketball coach, and then, another man interjected, one whose words Finch will never forget.

“He said to that guy, ‘You should meet her because one day, she will probably join this hall of fame,’” Finch recalled.

Thirty-six years later, that man’s prediction became true. Finch was one of 10 listed in the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame Class of 2025 induction class last month. The class will be inducted May 2 in Greensboro.

“When I look now into being inducted into the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame, I'm still in awe,” Finch said. “If you think about the All-Americans, the Olympians, people who hold national records, world records… It's all sports. It's all ages. It's very humbling.”

Finch will be the seventh Catamount inducted into the hall of fame.

“What a tremendous and well-deserved honor for Nora Lynn Finch to earn induction into the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame,” said Alex Gary, Ģ������Ƶdirector of athletics. “Nora is a two-time Western Carolina Athletics Hall of Fame inductee and has been instrumental in guiding the progression of women’s sports across the country.

“She has played a huge part in honoring and respecting our Catamount past, outlining the importance of Title IX legislation and providing guidance for our future generations here at Ģ������Ƶ. Congratulations to Nora Lynn Finch and all of this year’s North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame 2025 inductees. 

Finch is a pioneer in the realm of women’s basketball, but before she made her impact on the sport, she was a Catamount — and a talented one at that. During her college days in Cullowhee, Finch lettered in four sports: basketball, tennis, field hockey and volleyball.

She was one of the first intercollegiate female athletes at WCU, even helping the women’s basketball team to a national runner-up finish in 1969. Finch graduated from Ģ������Ƶwith honors in 1970, and two days after she turned her tassel, she joined the faculty at Wake Forest University to coach.

“I'm there to coach field hockey, volleyball, basketball, tennis to co-eds who petitioned to have the right to have sports, and I'm going to run the intramural program, men and women, and I'm going to teach classes, and I'm 22 years old. Western prepared me for that,” Finch said.

Finch also later coached at Peace College and NC State, was an associate athletics director at NC State, was the inaugural chair of the NCAA Division I women’s basketball committee for eight years and she negotiated the first women's basketball tournament TV contract with CBS.

Also, while Finch was on the women’s basketball rules committee, hall of fame coach Carol Eckman embraced her recommendation to have a slightly smaller and lighter basketball for women.

With Eckman’s help, the rule was passed, and years later, the international governing body for basketball, FIBA, adopted the NCAA size women’s basketball. Before her retirement nearly six years ago, Finch was the senior associate commissioner for women’s basketball at the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Finch led a storied career in women’s basketball, one that landed her in the Ģ������ƵAthletics Hall of Fame, the Peace College Hall of Fame, the National Women’s Athletic Hall of Fame and the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame.

Who is Nora Lynn Finch? She’s a hall of famer. Why is she here? Because of the people around her.

“Who you are, who you surround yourself with, what opportunities you take advantage of are going to determine what your life is going to be, and I've been with the best, and I'm here with the best,” Finch said.