MUFFET McGRAW: QUEEN OF MARCH MADNESS (12/5/55 to )
“Little Miss Muffet sat on a tuffet winning championships and having her way.”
As always, I’m on the lookout for statues of women and you know from reading this blog, it’s not as easy as it should be because only 8% of all statues erected are sculpted in the image of women. So, I was pleased when I was sitting in my living room watching March Madness on ESPN when I glimpsed a quick photo of a female statue wearing a green scarf.
“Stop, ”I said to my husband and hit pause.”
“Why?” he asked as if there was nothing to see.
“I want to find out who that woman is.” He knows full well this is my thing so he’s probably just eager to get back to the game.
“Oh, that’s Muffet McGraw,” he said, “the woman who coached Notre Dame’s women’s basketball team for decades. She’s an icon.”
An icon, you say. My kind of woman. The kind of woman that lives such an amazingly successful life that someone admired her so much they raised funds, hired an artist and then memorialized her in stone. Like Joan of Arc, Waving Girl, Harriet Tubman, Gertrude Stein and Sacagawea, to name a few.
Turns out, a statue of Muffet McGraw was unveiled in December 2023 at the Purcell Pavilion at Notre Dame University. Her statue isn’t perched on a pedestal as is often customary but on a lower base to highlight her accessibility. You see, Ms. McGraw is basketball royalty; she led the Irish women’s basketball team during a 33-year career that included 2 national titles and 9 Final Fours; 5 of her players went to on play in the Olympics’ and 10 former students are currently playing in the WNBA. She is the “winningest coach in college basketball history.”
Ms. Muffet retired in 2020 and is currently an analyst with ACC Network. But her legacy continues. She is a feminist who is an advocate for women’s sports and works diligently to secure funding. Ms. Muffet’s success off the courts focuses on developing confident, empowered women who hold leadership positions. While her coaching career was impressive and she reached such a high standard of coaching, she now uses her platform for the good of women’s sports, not just for basketball players, but throughout all of women’s sports. Her article published online in ACLU Indiana, “Elected Officials’ Hypothetical Effort to Save Women’s Sports” criticizes elected officials who say they want to help women’s sports, but then they fail to put the money where their mouth is. All they do is “raise a ruckus about keeping transgender athletes out of women’s sports, and they do nothing to help the women who are – day in and day out – dealing with financial inequality.” Ms. Muffet urges these keepers of the purse to Pay Up!
Like I said, my kind of woman; one who is extraordinary in every aspect, and one who doesn’t back down from advocacy and controversy. I’d want her on my team any day. She’s a winner. We need many more women like Ms. McGraw to memorialize in stone, erect in bronze and sculpt in marble. She rocks. And not just during March Madness but ever single day.
Rock on Muffet McGraw!