By Pat James, GoHeels.com
As her plane back to Chapel Hill took off from Florence Regional Airport in Florence, S.C., on Tuesday, Sylvia Hatchell stared out a window, overlooking the town she once called home.
In 1975, Hatchell, then 23, secured her first college head-coaching job at Francis Marion College. Now Francis Marion University, the tiny school in Florence was founded five years before Hatchell's arrival and had fielded a women's basketball team for only two seasons.
Yet Hatchell blossomed there. And 11 years and 272 wins later, she became the head coach at North Carolina in 1986.