CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Fighting Illini women's basketball head coach Nancy Fahey added another accolade to her hall of fame résumé this week when she was named to Silver Waves Media's list of 100 Influential People in Women's College Basketball.
Fahey, who in 2020-21 enters her 35th year as a collegiate head coach overall and her fourth at the helm of the Illinois program, became synonymous with excellence during her 31-year tenure at Washington University in St. Louis where she guided the Bears to 737 victories including an NCAA Division III record five national championships.
Fahey led WashU to four consecutive national titles from 1998-2001, and added her fifth championship in 2010. Her teams advanced to the NCAA Tournament in 29 of 31 years, and won at least 19 games in each of her last 30 seasons on the job, including two 30-win campaigns. Fahey also led WashU to an 81-game winning streak from the 1997-98 season to 2001, the second-longest winning streak in NCAA women's basketball history.
Since taking over at Illinois, Fahey has led the Illini to steady, incremental improvement and in 2019-20 posted a third-consecutive year with an increased win total, the program's best overall record in five seasons, and the best non-conference record since 2006-07.
Fahey is the fastest coach to 600 wins in NCAA history and the second-quickest to 700 NCAA wins. In 2012, she was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in Knoxville, Tenn., after earning enshrinement in the Washington University Sports Hall of Fame the previous year. Fahey was also inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in 2014 and the St. Louis Sports Hall of Fame in 2016, and will be enshrined in the Missouri Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame in September.
