Former Wayland Baptist coach nominated for Hoop Hall

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (AP) _ Harley Redin, who won six AAU national championships in nearly 20 years as Wayland Baptist's coach, is a finalist for election to the Basketball Hall of Fame. <br><br>Redin

Tuesday, April 23rd 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (AP) _ Harley Redin, who won six AAU national championships in nearly 20 years as Wayland Baptist's coach, is a finalist for election to the Basketball Hall of Fame.

Redin amassed a 431-66 record, two undefeated seasons, six AAU National Championships and a 76-game winning streak during the 18 years he coached the Wayland Baptist Flying Queens from 1955-1973.

The team, with a flashy warmup drill it learned from the Harlem Globetrotters, was initially sponsored by Harvest Queen Mill and Elevator and then by a local air service owner, who flew them to their games.

North Carolina State Coach Kay Yow and Cathy Rush were also nominated by the Women's Screening Committee, officials announced Tuesday. All had been nominated previously.

Rush coached for just seven years, but led tiny Immaculata College outside Philadelphia to three consecutive national collegiate titles, including the first for women in 1972.

She also took her team to six consecutive Final Fours. Her teams went 149-15 and became the first women's teams to play on national television and at Madison Square Garden.

Several of her players later became successful coaches, including Rene Portland at Penn State and Theresa Grentz at Illinois.

Yow has amassed a 625-268 record in her 31-year coaching career at Elon College and North Carolina State and has led the Wolfpack into the NCAA tournament 15 times in the last 19 years. She is the only women's coach to win a Gold Medal in the Olympics (1988) and the World Championships (1996).

To be elected, a nominee needs 18 votes from the 24-member Honors Committee. The inductees will be announced in June.