Many of the women who played basketball in Sue Gunter's era at times (and for some, always) lived in quiet desperation, even if they didn't realize it. They felt the staggering weight of expectation of what women were "supposed" to be then: as daughters and sisters, and for some, as wives and mothers. For others, it was knowing that they would not be wives or mothers, but never talking about the real reasons why.

Mechelle Voepel, of ESPN.com and the Kansas City Star, wrote an extraordinary column a few weeks ago in tribute to long-time LSU coach Sue Gunter. That particular paragraph made me cry when I read it. I don't know for sure that Sue Gunter was a lesbian, but it seems very likely. She never married, had no children, devoted her life to her players (and to her ailing mother).