Won't Back Down

Book excerpt: Whether on a baseball field as the only girl on an all-boys team in Hammond, Louisiana, or on a basketball court where her play-making ability was compared to Louisiana legend Pistol Pete Maravich, Kim Mulkey was a young athlete so gifted she was named to Parade magazine's 1980 All-America High School Girls Basketball team. Mulkey went on to win two national championships at Louisiana Tech, as well as a gold medal with the 1984 U.S. Women's Olympic basketball team. She served as an assistant coach on Louisiana Tech's 1988 national championship, then turned around Baylor University's women's basketball program by coaching them to a national championship in a mere five years. In Won't Back Down, Mulkey reveals the many trials she has overcome, and how her children and her coaching have sustained her in her most difficult moments.