Lin Dunn

Who is Lin Dunn?

Lin Dunn is an American women's basketball coach. She is most known for being the first coach and general manager for the Seattle Storm. She has more than 500 wins to her name.

The 1969 University of Tennessee at Martin graduate coached for decades in the college ranks, amassing a 447-257 record in 25 seasons as a college head coach. In her tenure at Austin Peay State University, the University of Mississippi, the University of Miami and Purdue University, she made the NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Championship seven times, and the Final Four once, in 1994 with Purdue. She is in the Athletics Hall of Fame at both Austin Peay and Miami. Dunn also was president of the Women's Basketball Coaches Association in 1984-85.

Dunn was abruptly fired at Purdue after the 1995-96 season, but resurfaced in the pros with the American Basketball League's Portland Power in 1996. She was ABL's coach of the year in 1998, right before that league folded. Dunn then became the first coach and GM of the expansion Seattle Storm in the ABL's rival, the WNBA. Her folksy southern personality was a hit in urbane Seattle, with fans often wearing Dunn masks and quoting her rustic aphorisms.