Former LSU coach Gunter dies at 66
Aug. 4, 2005
CBS SportsLine.com wire reports
BATON ROUGE, La. -- Sue Gunter, a Hall of Fame coach and pioneer in women's college basketball, died Thursday. She was 66.
LSU said Gunter, who had suffered from emphysema, died at her home in Baton Rouge.
She coached for 40 years, 22 at LSU where she took teams to 13 NCAA tournaments and laid the foundation for trips to the NCAA Final Four the past two years.
"I learned so much from Sue about the X's and O's of the game of basketball," said Tennessee coach Pat Summitt, the winningest coach in women's college basketball.
Summitt played on the 1976 U.S. Olympic Team on which Gunter served as an assistant, and she was an assistant to Gunter on the 1980 U.S. team.
"She made playing basketball fun due to her ability to connect with her players," Summitt said. "Personally, I am going to miss her tremendously and I know the game is going to miss her,"
Gunter had missed only one game in her career -- for her mother's funeral -- before suffering a severe emphysema attack on her way to a game in Jan. 2004.
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