Legendary women's basketball coach Carol Callan ready to help "get girls in the game"

Girls hoops is hot. Women's basketball -- both professional and college -- is scoring record viewership. But before Caitlin Clark and other superstars, Colorado's own star was born: Carol Callan.  

"Well my dad was a basketball coach. I had an older brother and I lived in a neighborhood of all boys. We played all the time in the neighborhood out in the street," she said.

Callan dreamed of gold from a young age.

"There was no way I was going to the Olympics as an athlete, but I found another way," she said.

In 1985, Callan joined the sidelines as a coach. She led Boulder's Fairview Knights girls basketball team to a high school state title. Her coaching career catapulted from there. Ten years later she was named the director of the women's basketball national team.

For 26 years Callan coached the program to seven Olympic gold medals and five of the past six World Cup golds.

"It's not just 'Throw 12 wonderful athletes together,'" she said. "They have to build it, and I think maybe the building of all that is what I'm most proud of."

Callan has moved on from coaching, but her legacy lives on. She is in the Sportswomen of Colorado Hall of Fame, the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame, and is the first female president of FIBA Americas, the worldwide governing body of basketball.

These days, Callan hopes that with her life story she can still help the next generation of young girls.

"What is it that you can do, even though you aren't an athlete, and to be able to encourage girls?" she said.

Callan is a representative from one of more than 25 sports organizations, teams and others who will be featured during CBS Colorado's Girls in the Game on Saturday. It will be held on the DU campus. Romi Bean hosts the event, which is designed to encourage, inspire and empower girls to consider careers in sports on and off the field.