Cathy Rush on basketball at Immaculata, 1972-1977.

When I interviewed for the job at Immaculata, I knew its gym had burned down and we wouldn't have any home games. The school had a gym at the novitiate, where it trained girls to become nuns. And that would be our gym, real tiny, with the walls right up to the out-of-bounds line.

From three to four, the novices had their recreation hour. We'd get there and find 18, 25 novices playing volleyball or roller skating, their habits flying all around them.

People ask me what Immaculata's record was before I got there. I don't know. I don't even know who the coach was. I just wanted to win, do the best I could.

We wore those tunics, a jumper with box pleats. They were wool, and you wore a blouse underneath and then bloomers. Very modest, very long, and very hot.

We played local schools similar to Immaculata: Cabrini, Rosemont, Mercy Academy. And I was astonished to find that we had people who could flat-out play. It was really a miracle. But not, of course, to our nuns - they knew that God had intended all of them to arrive at the same time.

The roster from 1972 to '74 included among others, Rene Portland, Marianne Crawford Stanley, and Theresa Shank Grentz, all of whom became famous women's coaches.

Theresa was a freshman (Rush's first year). She was light years ahead of her time. Six feet tall, and if anybody pressed us she would bring the ball up. She was quick, an excellent athlete. She could jump and shoot. The whole package. In the national tournament in '73, we played four games and she averaged 24 points and 18 rebounds.

We had no idea what was out there. I had gone to West Chester, which was known as a P.E. school. I talked to my athletic director and said, let's play West Chester. They had a first and second team and a third and fourth team. They sent their third and fourth team. And we crushed them. That gave us the idea that we were pretty good.

In '69, '70, and '71 there had been an invitational women's tournament. In '72 they set it up like the men's NCAA. It was at Illinois State. It had 16 teams, and they were the only people there. We beat West Chester, 54-48.

When we flew home, hundreds of people met us at the airport. It was overwhelming. Just incredible. The next year, West Chester scheduled us during the season, and the game drew 4,200 people - a lot of people in 1972.

We beat them and people went crazy, hundreds of them came down on the floor; and for the first time we had press coverage at a women's game.

We caught the lightning and rode it. We were on the East Coast in a big media area and were winning. And in Theresa Grentz, we had a dominant player.

We were a great story. The nuns came to our games and brought buckets and beat on them with sticks and cheered. It was wild.

And we won almost all of our close games. The most exciting game we ever had was in the semifinals of the 1972 national tournament against Southern Connecticut.

With three minutes and 12 seconds to go, we are down 12. I figure it's over. But we press, they turn the ball over and pretty soon we're up 1.

They call time out and with 40 seconds to go, I tell my players "Don't' foul anybody! Don't foul anybody!"

Southern Connecticut dribbles over halfcourt and - of course - one of our players commits a foul. Southern Connecticut misses the first foul and makes the second.

We call time-out, with 26 seconds left. Women's basketball uses a 30-second clock, but they forgot to turn if off. We start a play with 10 seconds left. Only Marianne is looking at the 30-second clock, which means there's only six seconds left. Everybody's yelling, "Shoot! Shoot!"

Everything is breaking down. Marianne shoots and misses. Theresa comes out of absolute nowhere and taps at the ball, it bounces through, and the buzzer goes off. We win, 47-45. Just the way I diagrammed it.

I have pictures of the nuns running out of the stands, their habits flying. Pictures of priests standing on the floor hugging nuns, hugging the players. Everybody crying. It was just sensational.

We won (the national championship) in '72, '73, and '74. We were in the finals in '75 and '76. In '77 we lost in the semifinals. I went into that season with one senior, six or seven juniors, one sophomore, and one freshman. The handwriting was on the wall. Immaculata was not going to give scholarships. I was the head coach, and I was making only $1,200.

So at the beginning of that year, I said no matter what happens, whether we win it all or lose every game, I was leaving. In retrospect, Immaculata made the right decision (not to offer scholarships). They were not going to compromise their standards to get students.

The era had passed. I knew that. But I don't think the whole community realized it yet. Without an infusion of talent, they were not going to be successful. The players were now going to the places that offered money.

We were 27-5 my last year. The woman who came in, she went to maybe 16-16. People said, "It's not the same without you." Well, It wouldn't have been the same with me.