Former Archbishop Ryan basketball player killed in balloon accident

Ginny Doyle was a slick free-throw shooter at Archbishop Ryan High School whose love of basketball took her to the job of associate head coach for the women's basketball team at the University of Richmond.

Chris Mooney, who also played basketball at Archbishop Ryan when Doyle played there and who is head coach of the Richmond men's team, told The Inquirer he learned around 11 p.m. Friday that Doyle had been aboard the doomed balloon.

Mooney said Doyle was an excellent recruiter who loved to talk about coaching. He and Doyle played at Archbishop Ryan in the late '80s and became good friends more than two decades later at Richmond.

"She built relationships very easily because she was such a good person," he said. "And she could speak so passionately about Richmond."

Doyle was a huge Phillies and Eagles fan, Mooney said, and they often talked about Philadelphia sports and their time at Archbishop Ryan.

After graduating from Ryan, Doyle played basketball at Richmond, where she broke an NCAA record in the early 1990s for consecutive shots made at the free-throw line - 66.

She also beat TV basketball analyst Billy Packer in a free-throw shooting contest after Packer criticized women's basketball and dismissed Doyle's record.

"It's the inner game you play within yourself that makes you successful in those situations," Doyle told The Inquirer in 2003. "The people who are strong and mentally tough and can handle that kind of pressure are the people you see succeed at the free-throw line."

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