As The Mighty Macs movie debuts today in theaters, ESPN.com contributor Michelle Voepel writes that "thousands of people will learn for the first time of a forward-thinking young woman whose obstinate optimism helped charter the course for the future of a sport." An excerpt from the article:
Nathaniel Hawthorne's famous collection of short stories, "Twice-Told Tales," consisted of writings actually published many more times than twice, of course. They appeared individually in magazines in the 1800s, then in a bound volume that went through various alterations.
The somewhat whimsical title of such a master work has long linked to women's sports in my mind, incongruous as that sounds. So many women's sports stories have never really been told even once. And some of the best, most historically important ones have been told … but can never be told enough. They merit repeated revisiting. They are stories about people and events that seem fictionalized but, in fact, aren't.
Such is the case with the saga of coach Cathy Rush and her Immaculata teams that won the 1972, '73 and '74 AIAW championships in the early days of women's collegiate basketball.
Four decades after first walking onto the campus of the small, Catholic college in Pennsylvania, Rush is talking about her time there a lot now. That's thanks to the film "The Mighty Macs," which essentially was completed in 2008 but -- like the program itself -- endured multiple challenges and adversity before prevailing.
"My goodness," Rush said recently, "I'm overwhelmed. I've been saying for 35 years the unique nature of the Immaculata story was an unlikely dream come true. I dreamed that this movie could be made, and to see it become a reality is just so gratifying, humbling and exciting all at the same time."
Read the complete article and coinciding coverage at espnW.com and watch the movie trailer at mightymacs.com.
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