For those of us who have any familiarity with women's college basketball, we all know who Debbie Ryan is. We all know how much she has meant to the Virginia program over the years.
A less familiar story is that of her background and how she came to be the Virginia women's basketball coach. In order to appreciate what she means to Virginia, it is important to know how she got here, before all the coaching victories and trips to University Hall, before the 20 postseason appearances and 12 trips to the Sweet 16.
Essentially, this is the story of the building of a legend. What better time to tell that tale than the week of the celebration of her 25th year as Virginia women's basketball coach?
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Deborah Ryan grew up in St. Louis, Mo., in the 1950s and early 1960s before moving to Titusville, N.J., at the age of 10. A lot of early inspiration for getting involved in sports came from her father, an Anheuser-Busch distributor. He encouraged his daughters to take up swimming and eventually basketball, a sport that was gradually growing for women in those days.
"I started shooting when I was really young, like eight or nine," Ryan said. "But didn't start playing competitively until junior high because there wasn't anything competitive for girls to do. In high school, obviously, I played."
Throughout her youth and during her teen years, Ryan was determined to do something with sports. She just wasn't sure which sport to pick.
"I didn't know it was going to be in basketball," Ryan said. "I swam so competitively for many years and was a swim coach, so I thought that was what I was going to do."
However, Ryan admitted that as she got older, the appeal of high-profile team sports sparked her to move away from swimming and eventually make basketball her top priority.
Because of the large imprint she continues to leave as a coach, many fans know little about Ryan's years as a player.
Ryan's collegiate basketball career was at Ursinus College, where she earned her bachelor's degree in physical education in 1975. The team did not have stellar records but picked up some wins and Ryan was named to the school's Hall of Fame for Athletes.
"Her style of play was very upbeat," Virginia assistant coach Audra Smith said. "Debbie was always, and still continues to be, a very understanding person. She's unselfish. She's just a very caring person, and she will go above and beyond to help her players."
After college, Ryan spent practically no time away from athletics and made an immediate impact on the sport. She went on to earn a master's degree in physical education from Virginia while serving as an assistant coach in both basketball and field hockey.
Ryan stressed that she had a difficult time adjusting from playing to coaching.
"It's a hard transition only because you love the game so much, so when you become a coach, you can't do the things that the players do," Ryan said. "You can't go out on the court and play and you don't get to make the play, the assist, or shoot the ball. But coaching is a whole new thing. It keeps you in touch with the game and in touch with other players and coaches. It's a great game."
In 1977, after just four years of women's varsity basketball at Virginia, Ryan replaced Dan Bonner as the Cavaliers' head coach and over the past 25 years has turned the program into an enduring success. Under Ryan, Virginia's overall record is 603-238, and she has seen the growth of women's basketball in both Virginia and the ACC.
"She took hold of this program and took it from nothing to a powerhouse," Smith said. "Debbie Ryan is Virginia basketball."
But that is another story, however, a very-much deserved one for Deborah Ryan, the swimmer from Titusville who became a basketball legend.
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