In one sentence, describe Rene Portland.

Take her 27 years as head coach of the Penn State women's basketball team and condense it into an encyclopedia entry. No long, run-on sentences. If you can, keep it to 10 words.

Try a few. See what sticks.

Portland won a lot of games. She sculpted "Lady Lion basketball." Portland made women's basketball matter in central Pennsylvania. She made a lot of headlines. Portland -- many times -- made headlines for the wrong reasons.

After her resignation last Wednesday evening and the news breaking the next day, a lasting legacy of an iconic coach and a socially dividing personality began to take shape. A permanent definition of her tenure will become short and tight.

For her supporters, she is a winning women's basketball coach who upheld the pillars of "Lady Lion basketball," while stomping her heels to the hardwood. Detractors will say some of those ideals brought about Jen Harris' lawsuit and a multitude of player transfers. Those in the middle will speculate about reasons for her exit.

Mel Greenberg, a sports writer for The Philadelphia Inquirer and founder of the women's basketball AP Poll, wasn't surprised when he heard of Portland's resignation, just like he was never surprised to hear the many rumors about the program she ran.

Reporting from afar, Greenberg compared himself to the father of a misbehaving child. He would always hear tales about Portland abusing players but never saw it. Portland's on-court success is well documented, but her accusations still float through air.

"She was always a proponent of me. That's why it was a mixed reaction," Greenberg said of her resignation. "The Penn State history is what is it. In some ways, it's the same dynamic concepts as Pete Rose. He had all the hits, but all you remember is the gambling."

When Jordan Hyman -- a current writer for Sports Illustrated and former women's basketball reporter for the Collegian in 1996-1997 -- heard that Portland stepped down, he said, in an upbeat way, "It's a good day." This news was long overdue in his eyes.

"We used to compare her to Bobby Knight," Hyman said. "Actually, the comparison is unfair to Bobby Knight. He leaves it all on the court. She's worse."

When Hyman reminisces about Portland, he said he sees a dictator. Players were all too often seen crying outside of locker rooms, not just because of a loss, but what Hyman remembers as Portland's abusive personality.

Hyman covered the transfer of three Penn State players in 1997, as juniors Tara Macciocco, Julie Jarosz and sophomore Shauntai Hall left the team in the span of one month. Seeking comment about their exit, Portland responded harshly.

"She's scary," Hyman said. "She scared me. When we were putting these stories together, we had to get her to respond. Every now and again she would call back and it would be a threat."

Admittedly, Hyman said Portland has loyal supporters, the ones who sat in the back of the media room and applauded when Portland's said we had tried for "six god damn months" to have her comment about Harris.

They dismiss negative commentary as hearsay and choose to punctuate her success as a coach. Many will point to her philanthropy, and a horde of the Rene's Dunkers behind the basket at the Bryce Jordan Center, as proof of Portland's moral merit. Some will keep those images of Portland stomping her heels to the hardwood while calling a play, and say she was a winner.

Others will forget the victories and remember only her unexplained exit and legal problems. In the middle will form the all-encompassing but the inevitably shallow view of her coaching career. Future generations will receive only a 30-second clip of Portland's image.

More than likely, a voiceover will mention Portland for one reason. She now represents an era of suspected homophobia. The internal investigation's report -- saying she created a "hostile, intimidating and offensive environment" for players, eerily similar to the coach Hyman recalls 10 years ago -- will bear repeating.

"People will look back and think about Rene Portland, she won over 600 games, but you will never be able to finish the sentence without mentioning the lives she really tainted," Hyman said. "For every positive impact she made, there were just as many negative ones. She won't be able to escape that."