Lady Vols might take Bison up on offer

By Jeff Kolpack

June 24, 2004 at 11:00 PM

North Dakota State head women's basketball coach Amy Ruley gave her recruiting pitch. And got a verbal commitment within minutes.

A player? Not quite. It was University of Tennessee head coach Pat Summitt, who responded to this question from Ruley: How about playing a game at the Fargodome?

"It's nothing in writing, but I believe her," Ruley said. "I think she'll do it."

Ruley proposed the game as part of her acceptance speech at the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame banquet in Knoxville, Tenn., earlier this month. Ruley wasn't planning on it until she saw Summitt sitting near the front of the head table.

"I kind of went out on a limb," Ruley said. "I thought, 'What the heck, I might as well give it a go.'"

During her speech, Ruley talked about NDSU's move to Division I this fall and that bringing a team like Tennessee to Fargo "would be an unbelievable event for us."

She referenced the University of Kansas' trip to the University of North Dakota two years ago and what it did for attendance at Ralph Engelstad Arena.

It wasn't long, Ruley said, before Summitt leaned over to her assistant coaches and said, "Let's do it. Let's start working on it."

It appears the soonest it could happen would be in four to five years. Tennessee's schedule, Ruley was told, is probably full until then.

Ruley has an ally in R.B. Summitt, Pat Summitt's husband. He's an avid hunter who has heard of North Dakota's bountiful pheasant season in the fall.

Ruley said Pat Summitt's philosophy in scheduling a team like NDSU is to promote women's basketball. The Lady Vols have a history of that making trips to the University of Montana, Portland State (Ore.), Youngstown State (Ohio), Northern Illinois, Carson-Newman (Tenn.), Delta State (Miss.) and Puerto Rico-Mayaguez.

"She really believes in helping the sport anyway she can," Ruley said.

NDSU, entering the second year of a five-year reclassification period, won't have a full-fledged Division I schedule until 2005-06.

Ruley said "it would make more sense" to schedule the Lady Vols once NDSU is farther along in the transition.

Readers can reach Forum reporter Jeff Kolpack at (701) 241-5546

By Jeff Kolpack

Jeff would like to dispel the notion he was around when Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press, but he is on his third decade of reporting with Forum Communications. The son of a reporter and an English teacher, and the brother of a reporter, Jeff has worked at the Jamestown Sun, Bismarck Tribune and since 1990 The Forum, where he's covered North Dakota State athletics since 1995.
Jeff has covered all nine of NDSU's Division I FCS national football titles and has written three books: "Horns Up," "North Dakota Tough" and "Covid Kids." He is the radio host of "The Golf Show with Jeff Kolpack" April through August.

Lady Vols might take Bison up on offer

North Dakota State head women's basketball coach Amy Ruley gave her recruiting pitch. And got a verbal commitment within minutes. A player? Not quite. It was University of Tennessee head coach Pat Summitt, who responded to this question from Rule...