A banner honoring Elaine Elliott now hangs in the Huntsman Center rafters. This is what it means to her

Over 27 seasons, Elaine Elliott forged relationships and built the foundation for the Utah women’s basketball program.

On Saturday, that legacy — and the people it represents — was celebrated as the University of Utah held a banner ceremony honoring Elliott’s coaching career during halftime of the Utes’ matchup with Cincinnati at the Huntsman Center.

Appropriately enough, the Utes beat the Bearcats 67-59 to keep the celebration going.

The festivities started Friday, when hundreds of former players, assistants and friends attended a reception in Elliott’s honor at Utah’s basketball facility.

“It must be the coolest thing I’ve ever experienced, because I am looking around, I’m just seeing the kids, I’m seeing the coaches, and I’m just going … there’s so much love, and I’m feeling it. It’s just unbelievable,” Elliott said Friday night as she took a few minutes to reflect on the impact her career had.

Elliott coached Utah from 1982-2010, and in that time, compiled a record of 582-234. That stretch included 20 20-win seasons.

The Utes won 15 conference championships and made 14 NCAA tournament appearances under Elliott, highlighted by two Sweet Sixteen appearances and one Elite Eight finish.

There were 16 All-Americans in the Elliott era, and four players were WNBA draft picks.

“This kind of thing is such a compilation of every single player and coach who was in this. I mean, I didn’t win a game, I didn’t shoot a basket, I didn’t do anything, right? I only didn’t mess them up. They were good, they won a lot of games and their number gets to go up in the rafters,” Elliott said.

The number 582, signifying the win total from the Elliott era, adorns the banner that was unveiled, and dozens of her former players joined Elliott on the Huntsman Center floor during the ceremony.

They were wearing sweaters that honored Elliott’s 582 wins. So, too, University of Utah athletics director Mark Harlan and deputy athletics director Charmelle Green.

There was even an edict announced that Feb. 14, Valentine’s Day, would be known as Elaine Elliott Day, bringing a cheer from the crowd and a surprised smile to the former coach’s face.

Elliott was in the Huntsman Center for more than just the banner ceremony. This year, she has served as a color analyst alongside Tony Parks for the ESPN+ broadcasts of the Utah women’s home games.

“I’ve loved being a color analyst,” she said. “They made me learn on my own. I did not get a manual, and so the first games were hard.

“I’m sort of, ‘Yeah, that was a really nice shot.’ I wasn’t very impressive, and I think I’ve improved in the same way I would have asked any of my players to improve and get better.”

She’s embraced being able to talk basketball, and not have to worry if her opinion might land her in hot water.

“It’s been kind of a revival for me to get back in the game in a way I didn’t think I ever would again. ... I don’t get in trouble for it, and I don’t have to win or lose because of it.

“The decisions I make on what comes out of my mouth is honestly how I feel.”

Elliott, who’s enshrined in the Utah Athletics Hall of Fame and Utah Sports Hall of Fame, followed another Hall of Famer, Fern Gardner, when she took over the Utah program in 1982.

At that time, women’s basketball was in the infancy of the NCAA era, after the AIAW (Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women) had been the governing body of women’s sports for over a decade.

Going through the grassroots era of the NCAAs, Elliott saw plenty of changes, particularly the battle that Utah, then a part of a mid-major conference, had to fight through to get recognition.

“It was really amazing, building up through (that era). It also meant there were a lot of extra barriers,” she said.

The NCAA tournament looked a lot different then, much different than the 68-team format that happens now every March.

“Only the top teams got to play. All of the first years we ever were in the tournament was always a home game for somebody else. There wasn’t regionalization, there wasn’t seeding. It was hard to break through,” Elliott said.

“I used to tell my early kids that it’s gonna be on my tombstone, I couldn’t win the first round, and then they started to change their format, and all of a sudden, you got four teams playing in a place, and you got a fair shot, you got a really honest neutral site.”

She continued: “And we just sort of grew from there. We really from that point on, as the tournament got bigger, better, fairer, you saw more teams like Utah in mid-level conferences go all the way to one free throw from the Final Four.”

Eventually, Utah made the Sweet Sixteen in 2001 and the Elite Eight in 2006.

That Elite Eight showing nearly turned into a Final Four appearance.

Shona Thorburn, an All-American and future first-round WNBA draft pick, went to the free-throw line for two shots with 7.8 seconds to play in Utah’s Elite Eight matchup against Maryland, with a chance to win the game.

She made 1 of 2, the contest went into overtime and the Terrapins prevailed.

Maryland went on to win the national title that season.

Being on the precipice of the Final Four, if Thorburn would have hit both free throws, is one of the moments that stands out from Elliott’s career.

In that moment, she knew her program could compete at that level.

“You know, I have told the Elite Eight story many times, but it was a moment that is important, the moment that we had the chance to go up in the final game of the Elite Eight and go to the Final Four,” Elliott said.

“We had the free throws, five seconds left, probably would have meant the win, and everything just went quiet for me. I sat down as a kid began to step up to the free throw (line), and I said to myself, ‘We’re going to the Final Four.’ And that moment we ended up missing one,” she said.

“We played in overtime and it doesn’t even matter in the end, we didn’t win the game. That moment, for me, is everlasting. I believed it. I knew it, and we were right there. And it was enough.”

The game has changed drastically since Elliott first started coaching the Utes in 1982, and it’s even a wildly different game since she retired in 2010.

The era of NIL and revenue sharing is here, and women’s basketball is far more marketable than it was 40 years ago.

Elliott is confident she was a coach at the right time for her.

“You’re very much ingrained in exactly what you’re doing at the moment when you’re coaching, and yet, I went through a change. Certainly, things progressed in today’s game,” Elliott said.

“I mean, wow in terms of what these kids get, also wow in terms of the new model in college that is very challenging and very different and very, I think, still fluid. I don’t know where it’s going to end up. I coached at the right time for me.”

Even in a new era for the sport, her basketball mind and her achievements are cherished.

“I know about the University of Utah program because of Elaine Elliot,” said Utah’s current head coach, Gavin Petersen. “... I’m humbled and honored that I get to be the head coach here at the University of Utah that was once led by somebody as great as Elaine Elliott.”

Petersen, along with his predecessor, Lynne Roberts, have led Utah to four straight NCAA tournament appearances, and the Utes are squarely in competition to extend that streak again this year.

The legacy Elliott left is one that Petersen makes sure his players know about.

“We talk about that all the time with our players, just understanding that people put on the jersey before you did. Something we did this year is we awarded our jerseys this year at legacy night, and allowing to bridge the gap from the tradition, rich history of our program, and bridge that gap to our current players,” Petersen said.

“That’s something I want to continue to do, because I got a sweet office. We got a great facility that was all because of them pouring in their heart and soul into this program, getting it to a level where women’s basketball mattered.”

Elliott called it a gift that she had the opportunity to serve as coach — and impact lives while cultivating relationships — for those 27 years.

“That’s the gift of all of it, is this 27 years and beyond — it’s been 15 years since I retired. That entire time, I had a relationship with a lot of kids and a lot of coaches and a lot of people. That doesn’t happen much,“ Elliott said.

“The coaches now that are staying around and coaching very long are still of my generation. They’ve been there even longer than I was. The gift is that that’s not happening anymore, and I got to coach at a time when it is. It did happen that way.”