Gala banquet celebrating AWSM’s 20th anniversary Sponsor welcome: Bob Yates, Dallas Morning News deputy managing editor
Master of ceremonies: Dave Barry, humor columnist
Keynote speaker: Jody Conradt, former University of Texas basketball coach By Elizabeth McGarr
2007 AWSM intern at Sports Illustrated While growing up in a small West Texas town, Jody Conradt thought her only career option was to become a teacher. Instead, she received her first basketball coaching job at Sam Houston State in 1969. “I taught seven activity classes, and I thought I had the best job in the world,” she recalled. After 38 seasons of coaching, the last 31 at the University of Texas, Conradt retired this spring. When she arrived at the University of Texas-Arlington in 1973, Conradt only had $1,200 in her budget as coordinator of women’s athletics. She coached volleyball, basketball and softball. All three teams wore the same uniforms. “In team pictures, you could only tell which team it was by looking at the socks,” Conradt said. When she began coaching at the University of Texas in 1976, the women’s team played at the Erwin Center before the men to try to attract crowds -- an idea, Conradt said, that didn’t work. “I said, ‘Never in my lifetime will you fill the Erwin Center with people just for a women’s game,” she said. “I wasn’t exactly a visionary. Thankfully, I was wrong.” Conradt, who had 900 victories when she retired, celebrated the notion that the growth of women’s basketball has allowed girls to play well beyond their high school years. She compared the team effort, commitment, passion and communication she required of her players to what the members of AWSM try to accomplish daily in sports media. As part of the 20th anniversary celebration, AWSM recognized the Pioneer Award winners and past presidents in attendance. Then Christine Brennan, the first AWSM president, and founding members Michele Himmelberg and Kristin Huckshorn stepped to the podium for what they called the “old-girl-network part of the show.” Brennan recalled the inaugural AWSM convention in Oakland in 1988, when the hotel rooms were $39 per night. “I didn’t know if it’d be 20 hours or 20 days that we’d survive,” she said. “It’s a credit to all of you that we’ve come this far." Back | 
