Debbie Yow, dressed in a black suit with a red sweater, descended the stairs into the main lobby of Reynolds Coliseum. It was a festive February evening inside North Carolina State’s historic arena. A sellout crowd filed in an hour before tipoff for the annual “Play4Kay” game, a fundraiser for cancer research named after Yow’s late sister.

Yow had barely exited the staircase when an effervescent woman in her 70s walked over and gave her an enthusiastic hug.

After stints at Saint Louis and Maryland, Debbie Yow has been AD at N.C. State for the past nine years.north carolina state university

“Thank you for everything you’ve done,” she told Yow, N.C. State’s athletic director since 2010 and architect of a Wolfpack resurgence over the last decade. 

The woman added: “I just love following you on Twitter.”

Surprised, Yow said, “You follow me on Twitter?”

“Absolutely,” the woman said. “I love it when you give it right back to them,” meaning the N.C. State critics. Or Tar Heel fans.

Yow, who will retire on April 30, has been giving it right back to them for most of her 29 years as an AD, the last nine at N.C. State. For much of that time, she was the only woman, or one of very few women, in an AD chair. She faced skeptics who simply couldn’t envision a woman leading an athletic department.

What does a woman know about hiring a football coach, a Maryland booster once asked Yow.

“Well, I can read a scoreboard and I can read graduation rates, and those are the two most important things I need to know,” Yow fired back. 

When Yow was hired at Saint Louis University in 1990, she was one of a handful of female ADs, but the only one at a decently high-profile Division I school. One of the traditions at the school called for the AD to speak to the 1-2-3 Club, a group of highly influential business executives in St. Louis who got together to talk sports.

The problem was that the club was for men only — no women allowed. They made no exceptions for Yow. The only time she was invited was during the Christmas party where the men brought their wives.

“That’s a strange thing when you realize you can’t do your job because you’re the wrong gender,” Yow said.

She got the Maryland job in 1994 and then moved to N.C. State 16 years later. All three jobs were mountainous turnaround projects, complete with upside-down budgets, questioning donors and disgruntled fan bases.

Along the way, she was called everything from “the woman” to “the skirt” to some much fouler female names by people who didn’t like her direct and assertive style. She said what was on her mind. Some might say she gave it right back to them.

Taking over the Wolfpack in 2010, Yow has led ACC athletic departments for 25 years following her 16-year stint at Maryland, where she was named the conference’s first female AD in 1994.north carolina state university

“She sets a very clear vision and she says, ‘We’re going to get this done.’ She’s just relentless,” said Oregon AD Rob Mullens, a Yow disciple who, along with his wife, Jane, worked with her at Maryland. “To me, her legacy will be that she pushed organizations beyond where they thought they could be, and she never let off the gas.”

Yow not only left every job better than she found it, she will forever be heralded as a pioneer for women in college sports. When female administrators sought career advice, they’d most likely reach out to Yow. She’d tell them the unabashed truth as she saw it: You’ll be held to a different standard; you’ll be scrutinized in ways your peers aren’t; you should volunteer the details of your family life and answer questions that a search committee isn’t allowed to ask.

Most of all, she made it OK for women not to back down because she never did.

“Debbie’s been a leader because she’s not afraid to sit in the front row and challenge the thought processes,” said Pittsburgh AD Heather Lyke, who displays in her office the congratulatory handwritten letter Yow sent when she got the Pitt job in 2017. “I’ve admired Debbie’s career for decades. She made the path better for other women because of the success she has had.”

■ ■ ■ ■

Yow dropped to her knees in a restroom at Saint Louis University and began to pray. She was at the school to interview for the AD job. She was overcome with doubt.

Lord, what am I doing here?

They told me not to come. I shouldn’t be here.

I’m a token. They’re not going to hire a woman.

An assistant AD at tiny UNC Greensboro in 1990, Yow had traveled to St. Louis against the advice of a close colleague who had said they’ll never hire a woman. Her husband, Bill, however, had a different take and talked her into going because, he said, “Debbie, when have you ever considered yourself a token?” and “Why are you going to start now?”

But when her flight arrived more than an hour late for the meeting with the all-male selection committee, Yow started having second thoughts. She needed a minute to compose herself, so she sought refuge in a bathroom stall.

Yow’s time and knowledge as a basketball coach, including with Oral Roberts in the early ’80s, helped her snag her first AD job at Saint Louis in 1990.north carolina state university

After taking a few minutes to consult with a higher power, Yow emerged with a new strategy. Instead of just talking about herself, she decided to ask the room of a dozen men on the selection committee what they wanted. As it turned out, they loved their basketball and they considered SLU a basketball school.

Yow, a former basketball coach-turned-administrator, identified with them right away. Once the conversation turned to hoops, they were speaking the same language. She got the job by a unanimous vote of the selection committee.

Saint Louis was an opportunity for her to show what she could do, albeit at an extremely challenging Jesuit institution with a paltry $2 million athletic budget. 

“There was nothing there; there wasn’t a computer in the entire department,” said Iowa State AD Jamie Pollard, who worked with Yow at Saint Louis and Maryland. “It may have been the worst program in all of Division I.”

It was during her time at Saint Louis that Yow’s hard-charging, demanding style began to take shape. Rich Grawer, the Billikens’ semi-successful basketball coach, engaged the first-time AD in a power struggle over expectations for the program that spilled into the media. Grawer lost both the power struggle and his job.

Yow replaced him with local legend Charlie Spoonhour, who after going 12-17 in his first year took the Billikens to consecutive NCAA Tournaments with a pair of 23-win seasons.

“Everywhere she’s been, Debbie has been an agent for change. And a lot of people don’t like change,” said Chris Boyer, a deputy AD at N.C. State who also worked with Yow at Maryland.

Four years after arriving at Saint Louis, Yow took the Maryland job and again she shook up an underperforming athletic department, which had not balanced a budget in the 10 years prior to her arrival in 1994. Yow balanced the budget her first three years there while paying off millions in facility debt.

When it came time to hire a football coach, Yow wisely turned a deaf ear to the Maryland booster club’s founder, who insisted that she hire a Penn State assistant — Jerry Sandusky. After misfiring on Ron Vanderlinden, she eventually hired Ralph Friedgen, who took the Terrapins to seven bowl games in 10 years, including the 2002 Orange Bowl.

“At each of her stops, she’s had to shift the culture,” said Michael Lipitz, who, like Boyer, worked with Yow at Maryland and carries a deputy AD title at N.C. State. “She’s not going to do things the way they’ve always been done, and she refuses to accept anything other than excellence.”

Look no further than the sign in her office at N.C. State. “Refuse to accept the status quo,” it reads. It’s a slogan Yow has put into practice at all three stops.

“We used to joke that Debbie was like Notre Dame. You either loved her or you hated her,” Pollard said. “But that’s because she ran really hard. Some people wilted under that and some people prospered.”

■ ■ ■ ■

The challenge at N.C. State was unlike anything Yow encountered at Maryland or Saint Louis.

When she was growing up in Gibsonville, N.C., a small town an hour west of Raleigh, the Wolfpack were one of the model programs in the country. They led the growth of ACC basketball in the 1950s and ’60s behind legendary coach Everett Case, and went on to win the 1974 NCAA basketball title with coach Norm Sloan, defeating UCLA in an epic semifinal. At the same time, Lou Holtz was directing an up-and-coming football program.

Shown in 1994 shortly after she became AD at Maryland, Yow talks with her sisters, Kay (left) and Susan (right). All three Yow sisters were successful women’s basketball coaches: Kay won more than 700 games on the college level and spent 34 seasons at N.C. State, while Susan was a longtime coach at both the Division I and WNBA level. north carolina state university

Over the years, though, the Wolfpack slipped and by the time Yow was hired in 2010, they weren’t very good at much of anything. They finished 89th in the Learfield Directors’ Cup that year. Worse, the fans suffered from a malaise brought on by a severe case of self-doubt. They couldn’t keep up, especially in basketball where they were bookended by Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski and North Carolina’s Roy Williams.

Yow, meanwhile, wasn’t sure about the State job. She had been at Maryland for 16 years and wasn’t looking to move.

But something felt different this time. Her sister, Kay, the longtime Wolfpack women’s basketball coach, had died of cancer in 2009 and the thought of “coming home” appealed to Debbie like never before.

Yow said she sat next to a colleague from North Carolina at the ACC spring meetings in 2010 and asked him who N.C. State might hire. Doesn’t matter, the guy said.

“Something rose up in me when he said that,” Yow said. “I don’t know why; I was at Maryland. But that always stuck with me. Why doesn’t it matter?”

Known for her “Yow-isms,” the Wolfpack AD shares her thoughts — and goals — for the N.C. State program on her office wall.north carolina state university

In her nine-plus years with the Wolfpack, Yow has fulfilled her promise of another turnaround. She never said it this way, but it’s almost like she figuratively picked up the baton from her fallen sister and carried it forward.

N.C. State finished 15th nationally in the 2018 Directors’ Cup, the school’s highest finish ever. More than that, Yow changed hearts and minds. Wolfpack Nation is moving past the inferiority complex that plagued athletics for so long, spurred in large measure by N.C. State’s across-the-board improvement, not just in football and basketball. That was a significant piece of Yow’s strategy when she arrived in 2010 — invest in Olympic sports, make them better and give the fan base something to cheer about while working on the two major sports.

“You have to have the mindset and resolve to be here,” Yow said.

As her final days in the AD chair wind down, the hugs and compliments  she gets at Reynolds Coliseum mean a little more. Yow isn’t one to show her emotions — she decided early on that a woman in a male-dominated profession couldn’t be seen crying — so she does her best to make it feel like any other night at the ballgame.

“I feel good,” Yow, 68, says. “I’m ready for what’s next.”

Greeting people at N.C. State’s annual “Play4Kay” fundraiser, Yow’s enthusiasm and pride in the Wolfpack has been infectious for the program’s fan base.north carolina state university

Those closest to her are still coming to grips with the idea that she won’t be leading an athletic department for the first time since 1990. Yow in those 29 years as an AD established herself as one of the most influential figures in college sports, whether she was being a resource for minorities in the business or serving as president of national AD organizations like NACDA.

Whatever the case, Yow left a distinct impression on the business of college athletics, and she did it her way.

“Debbie has an exterior toughness. She won’t back down,” Pollard said. “For her, think about it. She’s in a male-dominated industry. Being a female, you can’t show signs of weakness.

“But behind the curtain, she’s a kind, generous person who’s done more to help others than most.”  

First Look podcast, sponsored by Harvard Business School Executive Education. Debbie Yow discussion at the 17:01 mark:

Download a transcript of the podcast.