Muffet McGraw, Notre Dame

“What I’d like to see are more opportunities for women that they deserve, and for more men to be their advocates. “
Muffet McGraw

Muffet McGraw, Head Coach for Notre Dame Women’s Basketball, shared the story behind her title with us on October 13, 2019.

For 33 seasons, which included two national championships, Muffet McGraw patrolled the sidelines as the Karen & Kevin Keyes Family Notre Dame women’s basketball head coach. McGraw hoisted the NCAA national championship trophy in both 2001 and 2018 – becoming the sixth different women’s basketball head coach to win multiple NCAA titles.

McGraw was the 13th female coach inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2017. She had previously been inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in 2011 and the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame in 2014

Her legendary career included an impressive 936 career wins (ranks sixth all-time among Division I coaches), including 848 at Notre Dame. During the 2018-19 season, McGraw became the fourth-fastest coach to reach the 900-win milestone.

Coach McGraw led the Irish to seven NCAA title game appearances (2001, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2018 and 2019), including six in her last decade of coaching. Meanwhile, her nine Final Four appearances rank as the fifth most all-time. All-in-all, McGraw’s teams have qualified for 26 NCAA Tournaments, earning 67 tournament wins along the way.

A four-time National Coach of the Year winner and seven-time Conference Coach of the Year, McGraw won 25 total combined conference regular season and tournament championships. In addition, she has collected 174 wins against ranked opponents with 66 coming against top-10 teams.

McGraw is one of just five coaches in NCAA Division I history with over 930 wins, nine Final Fours and multiple NCAA championships — others are Summitt, Auriemma, VanDerveer and Duke men’s coach Mike Krzyzewski.

McGraw remains active in the South Bend community. Whether it’s organizing food drives throughout the area or teaching her Sports Leadership class in Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business. In addition, she joined ACC Network as a basketball analyst.

SUE SAYS

Talking to Muffet was like talking with a friend we grew up with. She had similar memories of growing up running around the neighborhood, “fending for ourselves.” What struck us though was her confidence…a no nonsense perspective on things, and a drive that comes from her innate competitive nature. She was meant to coach.