A basketball coach’s disclosure that she smuggled...

A basketball coach’s disclosure that she smuggled Bibles into the Soviet Union has put sport officials in a “very embarrassing” position, says the executive director of the Amateur Basketball Assn. of the United States.

Kay Yow, who coaches the women’s team at North Carolina State and has been selected to coach in the Olympics, was coaching the U.S. national women’s team when she visited the Soviet Union in August for the World Championship games.

“A basketball team representing the United States and visiting another country simply is not the place for this, no place for this at all,” said William L. Wall of the ABAUSA. “This was the coach of our national women’s team, and we chose her to coach the next Olympic team. I am very concerned.”

Wall declined comment when asked if the incident could jeopardize Yow’s position as Olympic coach.

Yow told the congregation of a Walkertown (N.C.) church Sunday that she and her assistants smuggled Bibles and other religious materials into the Soviet Union and gave them to members of a Christian “underground” who had approached them in Red Square during the Goodwill Games in July.