Gunter enters Hall along with Calhoun, Boeheim, Hubie

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. -- Sue Gunter never sought accolades. She shunned the limelight and shrugged off awards, even though she received plenty.

But this was different. The longtime LSU head coach learned in April she was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame. By then, emphysema had taken its toll and she could barely talk that day.

But, her longtime assistant, player and friend Pokey Chatman, who was at her bedside, knew this one meant something special.

"She had that gleam in her soft blue eyes and that smirk in the corner of her mouth," Chatman said Friday night at Gunter's posthumous enshrinement. "That said more to me than any words."

It was one of the more emotional moments as the class of 2005 was enshrined. The others enshrined as coaches were Connecticut coach Jim Calhoun, a Massachusetts native, and Syracuse's Jim Boeheim. Former NBA coach and broadcaster Hubie Brown entered as a contributor and Brazilian women's star Hortencia Marcari represented the international game.

Gunter, the 66-year-old pioneer of the women's game, died Aug. 4, four months after learning she would be honored. She recorded 708 wins and ranked third all-time in women's NCAA history when she retired.

She led LSU to 14 NCAA berths and a Final Four appearance. She 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 January 2004.

Chatman became the interim coach, and the next season became the head coach, taking the teams Gunter had built to the Final Four both times.

"I should be the least nervous person here," Chatman said. "I only had to do one thing to stand here tonight and that was to choose Louisiana State University as a high school senior."

What followed, Chatman said, was "18 years of witnessing Coach Gunter's mastery."

"I learned a lot about basketball," Chatman said. "I learned more about life."

Hall-of-Fame coach Pat Summitt, the winningest coach in women's college basketball, also was on hand for the ceremony. 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 taught me that it's OK to let down your guard and allow your players to get to know you," Summitt said. "They don't care how much you know until they know how much you care."