Kathy Delaney-Smith

Kathy Delaney-Smith is an American college basketball coach. She is the head coach of the women's basketball team at Harvard University. She has served as the head coach since 1982, and is entering her 39th season in 2020-21. Only one coach, Harry Perretta, has a longer tenure as a head coach of an NCAA Division I women's basketball team. With Harvard, Delaney-Smith had her 600th win as a NCAA Division I coach in March 2019.

Kathy Delaney-Smith
Current position
TitleHead coach
TeamHarvard
ConferenceIvy League
Record617–420
Coaching career (HC unless noted)
1981–1982Westwood HS (MA)
1982–presentHarvard
Head coaching record
Overall617–420

In 1998, Harvard beat Stanford in the first round of the NCAA tournament, the first time in men's or women's Division I NCAA history that a sixteenth seeded team had beaten a number 1 seed.[1]

Early years

Delaney–Smith grew up in Newton, Massachusetts and is one of six children. When she attended Sacred Heart high school there were no gym classes so she developed her basketball skills playing on basketball courts across the street from where she lived. She played on the basketball team in high school and became the first female in Massachusetts basketball history to score 1000 points. She joked that this was because the coach was her mother who made her teammates passed to her.[2]

She attended college at Bridgewater State, but the school had no varsity teams for women, just a club that placed more emphasis on making sure everyone received equal playing time rather than winning. Though, Delaney-Smith did not find that competitive enough. She was a good swimmer, so wanted to compete on the swim team but the school only had a synchronized swimming team. She ended up enjoying her four years on this when team even though it wasn't competitive enough for her.[2]

High school coaching

After graduating from Bridgewater, her goal was to become a swim coach. She knew that Westwood High School, a few miles to the south of Newton, had constructed a new swimming pool, so she applied for a position as teacher and swim coach. She interviewed with the school superintendent, whose daughter played on the basketball team. He mentioned the basketball team was "terrible" and asked "can you coach them and can you win?" She responded that she could.[2]

Although she played in high school she faced a new challenge, having played the six-on-six version of basketball, a very different style of basketball than five person basketball which she now had to learn how to coach. The team went 0–11 in the first season, but over the next 11 years, the teams she coached had six undefeated seasons, a 204–31 record and won a state championship.[3]

Delaney-Smith is a strong advocate of gender equity. While at Westwood she filed multiple Title IX lawsuits to help ensure that the players had sufficient resources. In the mid-70s, she encountered other obstacles when she and her team played a road game. The team had changed from street clothes into uniforms in the locker room at their own school and then traveled to the game. They returned to their own gym, "tired, sweaty and eager to retrieve their belongings", but their own gym was occupied by a visiting boys team. They were told they had to wait. Delaney-Smith disagreed, and led her team past the teacher guarding the door. She remarked, "I think it was a little frenetic, to be honest." but she made her point.[4]

In her time at Westwood, Delaney-Smith coached seven Boston Globe All-Scholastic selections, and saw many of her players continue their careers in college. She was inducted into the Westwood Hall of Fame in 1996.

Harvard

Due to her success as a high school basketball coach, she received numerous inquiries regarding a college position, but the first one she took seriously was a call from Harvard due to the commitment to gender equity demonstrated by the hiring committee. Even after being hired by Harvard, she continued to have to fight for her teams. On one occasion, when traveling to a road game, the team showed up for the pregame shoot-around but found that the men's team was using the gym.[5]

The transition to the college game mirrored, in some ways, her start as a high school coach. While they won a few games in the first three seasons, Harvard finished last in the conference in each of those years. That would change in the 1985–86 season, when the team had their first 20-game winning season, went nine and three in the conference, and finished in a tie for first place, her first of many conference titles. That first conference championships is one of her fondest accomplishments, which she savors because she believed her team "outworked most opponents".[3]

Today, winning the conference means an automatic bid to the postseason NCAA tournament. However, in 1986 not all conferences had an automatic bid to the tournament. The Ivy League would be granted an automatic bid starting in 1994. While an Ivy League team could be invited to the NCAA tournament as an at-large team, it has only happened once, by Dartmouth in 1983. Harvard finished first in the Ivy League in 1986, 1988, and 1991, but did not get their first invitation to the NCAA tournament until 1996.[6]

Harvard first played in an NCAA tournament in 1996. Although they lost to Vanderbilt, they hit 16 three-point attempts in the game, setting a record for an NCAA tournament game that has been subsequently tied but not exceeded as of 2017.[6] In 1997, they again won the Ivy League, going 14–0 for their first ever undefeated conference season[7] and an invitation to the NCAA tournament, where they faced top-seeded North Carolina and lost.

In 1998, Harvard again won the conference, and had its best season ever winning 23 games, helped by the leading scorer in the nation Allison Feaster, who averaged 28.5 points per game. They were invited, as expected, to the NCAA tournament, but despite their overall performance they would receive a 16 seed. They traveled west to play number one seed Stanford Cardinal on their court. However, Stanford would be playing without two of their best players, Vanessa Nygaard who was injured in the Pac-10 final conference game while Kristin Folkl was injured shortly after in a practice. Despite the losses, the Cardinal were favorites to win the game, as a 16 seed had never beaten a number one seed. As the team walked onto the court, one of the event workers said "Welcome to real basketball".[8] Feaster delivered, scoring 35 points, but it was a teammate, Susie Miller who hit a three-pointer late in the game to secure the win, representing the first, and still the only time a 16 seed has beaten a one seed in an NCAA women's tournament game.[9] The feat has since been matched by the men, as the UMBC Retrievers upset Virginia in 2018.

In 2014, she reached another milestone when Harvard beat Yale 69–65. That represented career win 515, pushing her past Princeton's Pete Carril for the most wins by an Ivy League basketball coach.[10] In March 2019, Delaney-Smith won her 600th game as a NCAA Division I coach.[11] Delaney-Smith is also one of only four active head coaches to spend over 38 years at the same institution in Division I.

Accomplishments and Recognitions
  • Boston Herald-American Coach of the Year in 1978-79 (high school)
  • Boston Globe Coach of the Year in 1979-80 (high school)
  • National High School Coaches Association 1981
  • Has coached Harvard to all 11 of their Ivy League Titles, the first coming in the 1985-86 season
  • Become the first woman named to the Massachusetts Basketball Coaches Hall of Fame in 1986
  • 1996-97 Ivy League Coach of the Year after leading her squad to a 14-0 conference record paired with a second straight NCAA tournament berth
  • The 1997 “Leading Woman” of the Patriots’ Trail Girl Scout Council, which recognizes women who have succeeded in their professional and public lives. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of the organization.
  • During the 1997-98 season she coached the Crimson to a 25-3 overall record, and the first NCAA Tournament win for an Ivy League school. This win came over the Stanford Cardinals, which was also the first time in men’s or women’s basketball a #16 seed beat a #1 seed in the NCAA DI Tournament.
  • Also, coached the 1997-98 team to the program’s third Ivy League in a row, the first Ivy League team to accomplish this
  • Served as the chairperson for the Converse Coach of the Year Selection Committee and was honored by Converse as the 1998 Coach of the Year in District I.
  • Earned her 250th victory when leading the Crimson over Sacred Heart at the Harvard Invitational. Later, a win over Dartmouth cemented her as the first woman’s Ivy League coached to have 150 Ancient Eight wins
  • Inducted into the New Agenda Northeast Hall of Fame in 1998
  • Inducted into the Bridgewater State Athletic Hall of Fame in October 1999
  • New England Women’s Leadership Award for Sports in March 2000
  • Presented the prestigious Carol Eckman Award at the 2000 Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) convention.[12]
  • Inducted into the New England Basketball Hall of Fame in October 2003
  • She has been recognized by the Women’s Educational and Industrial Union as a “woman who has inspired other women and has contributed to the quality of life for women and their families.” In 2007, she received the Gildna Radnar Award, which recognizes individuals who have demonstrated determination and hope in the face of cancer.

Head coaching record

College
Statistics overview
Season Team Overall Conference Standing Postseason
Harvard Crimson (Ivy League) (1982–2017)
1982–83 Harvard 7–173–97th
1983–84 Harvard 3–222–107th
1984–85 Harvard 8–182–107th
1985–86 Harvard 20–79–3T-1st
1986–87 Harvard 13–138–64th
1987–88 Harvard 21–512–2T-1st
1988–89 Harvard 15–119–54th
1989–90 Harvard 14–129–5T-2nd
1990–91 Harvard 17–912–21st
1991–92 Harvard 14–1211–32nd
1992–93 Harvard 16–911–32nd
1993–94 Harvard 7–194–107th
1994–95 Harvard 19–711–32nd
1995–96 Harvard 20–713–11st NCAA First round
1996–97 Harvard 20–714–01stNCAA First round
1997–98 Harvard 23–512–21stNCAA Second round
1998–99 Harvard 10–157–7T-4th
1999-00 Harvard 16–109–5T-2nd
2000–01 Harvard 12–159–52nd
2001–02 Harvard 22–613–11stNCAA First round
2002–03 Harvard 22–514–01stNCAA First round
2003–04 Harvard 16–119–5T-2nd
2004–05 Harvard 20–812–2T-1st
2005–06 Harvard 12–158–64th
2006–07 Harvard 15–1313–11stNCAA First round
2007–08 Harvard 18–1111–3T-1st
2008–09 Harvard 19–1011–32ndWNIT First round
2009–10 Harvard 20–911–32ndWNIT First round
2010–11 Harvard 18–1010–4T-2nd
2011–12 Harvard 18–1210–42ndWNIT Second round
2012–13 Harvard 21–911–32ndWNIT Second round
2013–14 Harvard 22–811–32ndWNIT Second round
2014–15 Harvard 14–147–7T-3rd
2015–16 Harvard 14–149–53rdWNIT First round
2016–17 Harvard 21–98–63rdWNIT Second round
2017–18 Harvard 18–1110–43rdWNIT First round
2018–19 Harvard 17–139–5WNIT Second round
2019–20 Harvard 15–126–8
Harvard: 617–420 (.595)360–164 (.687)
Total:617–420 (.595)

      National champion         Postseason invitational champion  
      Conference regular season champion         Conference regular season and conference tournament champion
      Division regular season champion       Division regular season and conference tournament champion
      Conference tournament champion

Sources:

  • IVY League Standings[13]
  • Harvard Schedule[14]

References
  1. "First and last 16-seed to win". ESPN.com. Retrieved 2017-10-03.
  2. "'If you can stay present, that's a better place to be'". Harvard Gazette. 2016-05-18. Retrieved 2017-10-04.
  3. "Harvard's Kathy Delaney-Smith on top of Ivy League – The Boston Globe". BostonGlobe.com. Retrieved 2017-10-04.
  4. Pedulla, Tom (2014-03-06). "Harvard's Kathy Delaney -Smith Tied for Most Wins by an Ivy League Basketball Coach". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2017-10-04.
  5. ""Acting As If" for 35 Seasons". Harvard Magazine. 2016-10-05. Retrieved 2017-10-04.
  6. "NCAA Women's Final Four Records" (PDF). NCAA.org. Retrieved October 4, 2017.
  7. "Media Center Year-by-year results" (PDF). Gocrimson.com. Retrieved October 4, 2017.
  8. Johnson, Melissa (2009-03-20). "A Harvard Education in How to Be a Winner: Act Like One". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2017-10-04.
  9. "First and last 16-seed to win". ESPN.com. Retrieved 2017-10-04.
  10. "Delaney-Smith breaks Ivy League record". Harvard Gazette. 2014-03-07. Retrieved 2017-10-06.
  11. "Harvard Head Coach Kathy Delaney-Smith Earns Her 600th Career Win". Ivy League. 8 March 2019. Retrieved 30 January 2021.
  12. "Carol Eckman Integrity in Coaching Award". Women's Basketball Coaches Association. Retrieved 30 January 2021.
  13. "Ivy League". www.ivyleaguesports.com. Retrieved 2018-04-17.
  14. "2017-18 Harvard Women's Basketball Schedule". Harvard. Retrieved 2018-04-17.
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