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As sports-minded as Indiana Fever Coach Nell Fortner was as a young girl, she would have saved her allowance "forever" to buy a ticket to a women's basketball game. "I would have been blown away by a WNBA game," she proclaims in her charming Southern drawl. Fortner doesn't have to worry about saving her allowance anymore, because the Women's National Basketball Association's Indiana Fever franchise is paying her to come to the games.

Most Hoosiers know the lanky, 6-foot blonde as the woman who ignited Purdue University's women's basketball program in 1996-97. With only four returning players, she posted a 17-11 record, won a share of the Big Ten title and advanced to the second round of the NCAA championship tournament.

Named both Big Ten Coach of the Year and Basketball Times' National Coach of the Year in '97, she is partially responsible for Purdue playing in this year's championship final. She recruited the entire senior class, including All-Americans Camille Cooper and Katie Douglas, as well as junior Kelli Komara.

The 2000 Olympic women's basketball coach is rejoining forces with her former Purdue star, Stephanie McCarty, at Conseco Fieldhouse to lead the Indiana Fever.

Despite last year's 9-23 record, Fortner plans to build the best team in the WNBA.

"There's no one better than Nell who can do it," says Leon Barmore, women's head basketball coach at Louisiana Tech and Fortner's former boss. "There's not an aspect of this game she's not on top of: recruiting, Xs and Os, defense, working with the kids. Indiana knew what they were doing when they hired her."

The credit goes to Indiana Fever president/general manager Donnie Walsh, who wanted her to coach the Indiana Fever so much that he was willing to wait a year until she was free from her Olympic responsibilities.

"She was our No. 1 choice, and I truly believe we have hired a great head coach," he stated in a press release.

Fortner recalls the day they met, "I knew after a five-minute conversation with Donnie Walsh that he was somebody I wanted to work with; we just connected."

Fortner was relieved that, in his August 1999 offer, Walsh addressed her Olympic duties, which prevented her from coaching the team's inaugural season. She didn't want to ask Walsh to wait for her. Nor was she going to accept the position any other way.

"They are totally committed to growing this franchise the right way," she says, looking forward to returning to coaching in front of Indiana's knowledgeable fans.

Even if Fortner had saved enough allowance for a WNBA ticket, there were no women's organized sporting events to attend in the 1960s. That didn't stop the tall, skinny grade-schooler. She discovered basketball in the second grade when her father put up a basketball goal in their back yard.

"They just wanted us kids out of the house. It could have been tetherball, they didn't care," Fortner says of her retired parents, Bill and Lola Fortner, who live in Mississippi but visit her often.

According to her mother, Nell Fortner's desire to play along with two older brothers and an older sister drove her to improve. And as Fortner says matter of factly Ñ as if her gift were a given Ñ "I just took to it."

The backyard court became a gathering place for the neighborhood kids. Lola Fortner had one rule: The outside lights went off at 10 p.m. Of course, her daughter was still shooting hoops in the dark.

No one noticed Fortner playing in the driveway until she reached middle school, when she started beating the neighborhood boys. Then came the ultimate showdown: a story that lives on in Fortner family lore.

Brother Tom returned home one weekend from playing football at Tulane University. He figured playing a little one-on-one with Fortner, who was in sixth or seventh grade at the time, would be an amusing distraction. Instead, big Tom Fortner got beat by a girl Ñ even worse, by his kid sister. "He could hardly stand it," Fortner laughs.

Her mother remembers things getting a little heated. "Those games caused a few strong discussions," Lola Fortner says in her most genteel Southern manner.

When Nell Fortner wasn't playing basketball, she was playing volleyball and tennis, running track, swimming and cheerleading. "I couldn't get enough," says the energetic coach, who can't keep still.

Fortunately for Fortner and the Indiana Fever, her family moved to Texas where high schools already supported girls sports teams. "In 11th grade was the first time I got to play organized basketball, and I loved it," she says with a smile.

Her high school basketball coach, Karen Fredenburg, inspired Fortner's dream of becoming a basketball coach. She was "a tremendous role model for me." Despite being pregnant with her first child, Fredenburg drove the team bus and continued to coach. She taught her players more than zone defense; she taught them about self-esteem and assertiveness. "She wasn't big; she was just a strong, confident woman," Fortner says. "I knew I wanted to be like her."

Winning a dual scholarship in basketball and volleyball to the University of Texas, Fortner met her next inspiration, women's head basketball coach Jody Conradt. "After playing for her, there was no question I wanted to coach," says Fortner, who led Texas to a 127-26 record during her tenure.

Role models have played a large part in Fortner's career. For a little girl who didn't have a Dawn Staley or Stephanie McCarty to admire, mentors like Conradt mean a lot. Now, Fortner stands as a role model in an industry that depends on role models for its success.

According to Fortner, the players understand the need to interact with fans in order to grow the WNBA. She says she never saw her Olympic players turn down an autograph request. At Indiana Fever games, young fans can expect to talk to the players, shake their hands and get their autographs. "It's life-changing stuff Ñ goal altering," Fortner declares passionately.

Because the players take their role-model status seriously, Fortner thinks WNBA games are good family events. "Their daughters are going to see professional women's basketball players in a very exciting and positive light," she says animatedly. "One of the neatest things to see is the dads bringing their daughters."

Not only do Hoosier girls look up to Fortner, but even more important, her four nieces and nephew do, too. They tell Aunt Nell about their soccer and basketball games, and gymnastics and swim meets. When she appears on television, it's almost more than they can bear, Lola Fortner says.

Last year the coach's 10-year-old niece, Jesse McCraw (who inherited Aunt Nell's athletic ability), spent a little bench time with the Olympic team in Dallas. McCraw had the enviable position of ball girl, handing out towels and water to the players. "You hope it impacted her life," says Fortner, who plans to work with local organizations that support young girls.

But until the end of the summer, Fortner is coaching 24/7. After the April draft, the WNBA gave coaches and players little time to prepare. From the team's first official day of practice, May 2, she had 28 days to get her team ready for its opener on May 31.

During the season, she pushes her team through a two-and-a-half-hour workout on the floor. Then it's on to chalk talks and videotape discussions, and, finally, another hour of shooting. If the team plays that night, there's not much time left in the day. "You have to use your time wisely but not wear your players out," she says.

When she needs quick relief from her pressure-filled days, she walks the couple of blocks to Circle Centre Mall to engage in her favorite activity: shopping. "I even love grocery shopping Ñ any type of shopping," says the Southerner, whose favorite store is, conveniently, Nordstrom. "It's a way for me to relax."

During the off-season, she soothes her soul by sitting on the deck of her Northeastside house and looking out at her small lake. Two dogs, Holly, a Yorkshire Terrier, and Shelby, a Westie, welcome her home at night. "They're rotten to the core," she brags almost like a proud mother. "I love it." In the evenings, she picks up her guitar and writes music.

Although she doesn't play basketball anymore, she still shoots, runs and lifts weights. "I do the noncontact sports," says the 42-year-old coach. "I don't want to get hurt. You just can't do the things you used to do."

But there are so many things she does do. Coaching is just one of them. Before the season started, she served as a sports analyst for ESPN during the women's NCAA tournament. Watching her Purdue players and assistant coaches in the championship game was a proud moment for her.

"They're still special to me," she says. "It's everybody's dream to play for a national championship." Hers included. Even though she didn't play in an NCAA final, she played for USA Basketball while in college as a member of the 1978 U.S. Olympic Festival South team, winning a silver medal.

At Texas, Fortner compiled 1,466 points, which ranks 13th on the Longhorns' all-time scoring list. She also helped lead the school's volleyball team to the 1981 Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women's national championship.

Since then, she's been on the fast track. "She's climbed the mountain quickly at a very young age, but she's going to stay on top of that mountain," says Barmore, who believes she was just as strong a coach then as she is now. Prior to the Olympics, she served five seasons as an assistant coach with Louisiana Tech.

She began her coaching career as a high school basketball coach at Killeen High School in Texas. She jumped to college ball as a graduate assistant at Stephen F. Austin University in 1986-87 and then spent three years as an assistant coach.

"Over the years, she's matured," says longtime friend Mickie DeMoss, the women's associate head basketball coach at the University of Tennessee, which was the only college team to beat Fortner's Olympic team. "She's toughened her skin. She was too sensitive, trying to keep everybody happy all the time. She's learned if you want to be a good head coach, you can't do that."

At first, Fortner comes across as a button-down, no-nonsense coach who is driven to win. But underneath, she has a wild side. DeMoss, to her dismay, can attest to that over and over. "She's about killed me on several occasions," jokes DeMoss of their risk-taking adventures, such as scuba diving. While in Texas, Fortner "dragged" her to ride a San Antonio roller coaster. "We get off; I could barely walk, and then Nell says, ÔLet's ride again.' " According to DeMoss, the state of Texas condemned the roller coaster the next year. Wild women indeed.

Fortner applies the same enthusiasm to coaching. She stops to say a word to players, administrators, owners, secretaries Ñ everyone. "It's hard to be down when she's around," Barmore says. "The girls react really well to her upbeat personality."

Fortner enjoyed coaching college, especially at Purdue, but another opportunity came along. That, of course, was the Olympics. Fortner has coached two Olympic teams. The first time was in 1996 when she was an assistant coach of the USA Women's National team, which won a gold medal in Atlanta. "You don't feel the pressure the head coach feels, and let me tell you, it feels totally different," she says of the nerve-wracking days as head coach of the 2000 USA Women's National team. "Being head coach was an awesome experience, but once it was over, it was an even better experience. The pressure is off, and you can truly enjoy it."

When she realized the United States had won the 2000 Olympic gold, she felt such unbelievable joy Ñ almost a surrealness she can hardly describe. "I think for me, the satisfaction of seeing a group of young women playing the best game in their lives Ñ because our gold medal game was our best game that we ever played Ñ was the best part," she explains.

She didn't scream or cry until she hugged her mom, who gained her own notoriety for carrying a sign that read, "I'm the coach's mom." "You could really relax because you were in your mom's arms," she says, as her facial features soften and her voice drops.

Even though the final game was tense, Fortner knew the team would win. She always believes she's going to win every game she plays. "I don't know what that is, confidence or what, but I hate to lose," Fortner emphasizes. "I do everything I can to give me the best opportunity to win. I think with that comes confidence, because you know you're prepared."

She didn't have to worry often about the team losing. She led the team to a 101-14 record, the most wins of any coach in Women's USA Basketball history. In addition to the Olympics, the women won the FIBA World Championships of Basketball in 1998.

According to her mother, she has been this competitive all her life. In kindergarten, Fortner and a neighbor girl entered a three-legged race. "Those little girls practiced for weeks, going up and down the yard," Lola Fortner remembers.

The coach stays in touch with her 12 Olympic players, who play for other WNBA teams. As a result, their relationships enjoy a competitive streak now. "I'll see them all this summer," Fortner adds, "but I don't know if I want to." She may be their friend, but basketball is business, and she plans to win every matchup.

Hoosier fans can't wait. With superior high school teams and the collegiate double whammy of NCAA finalists Notre Dame and Purdue, the popularity of women's basketball is exploding in Indiana, where so many young girls revere the Fever. A championship pro team would seal the state's dominance in women's basketball.

Fortner doesn't need a ticket to that success; she is the ticket.