This seemingly harmless spotlight on Taylor brought an increase of about 2 million female viewers, but also brought the return of looming gender-related ideologies of sexualization seen throughout sports (like Travis Kelce calling out the NFL for overdoing it by ‘parading’ Taylor Swift).

But it’s not just pop stars that are hypersexualized.

At the college level, Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) has allowed college athletes to gain monetary compensation for their personal brands, and unfortunately, this has also included the hypersexualization of female college athletes.

Olivia Dunne, one of the top NIL earners as a gymnast, was featured in a Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue that was attractive to some, while causing concern for others along the lines of sexualization.

Also consider the Cavinder twins, Haley and Hanna, who achieved major NIL success while playing basketball for the University of Miami Hurricanes. The twins were subject to a blatant hypersexualization by a writer, who wrote an article about them featuring their photo above a headline that reads, “The NCAA has a ‘hot girl’ problem.” The minimization of their accomplishments as basketball players and subsequent assumption that they were only successful for their looks is a glaring example of the sexualization faced by women athletes, and the twins took to social media to express their ‘disgust’ for the article.

This is such a major issue that other college stars like Haley Jones (Stanford Women’s Basketball Player) have vehemently stated that they have experienced sexualization–and have no interest in furthering that challenge by pursuing NIL deals that would require that scope. On the inadvertent misogyny, Jones most notably said, “You can go outside wearing sweatpants and a puffer jacket, and you’ll be sexualized,” and said, “I could be on a podcast, and it could just be my voice, and I’ll face the same thing. So, I think it will be there, no matter what you do or how you present yourself.”

For example, consider the ways that Legendary Stanford Women’s Basketball Coach Tara Vandeveer believes that NIL depictions focused on sex appeal is regressive for female athletics. Vandeveer, who is the winningest coach in Division I basketball history, said, “I guess sometimes we have this swinging pendulum, where we maybe take two steps forward, and then we take a step back. We’re fighting for all the opportunities to compete, to play, to have resources, to have facilities, to have coaches, and all the things that go with Olympic-caliber athletics.” She concluded with, “This is a step back.”

The stereotypically-regressive depictions (i.e., sexualized) of female athletes (i.e., physical attributes, body image, and sexuality) continue to be the focus of many NIL endorsements, which promote female athletes as sex objects as opposed to highlighting their athletic skill (akin to issues with Sports Illustrated’s Swimsuit Issue).

On July 1, 2021, California passed Senate Bill (SB) 206 and revolutionized the intercollegiate athletics compensation landscape that allows college athletes the ability to profit from the use of their name, image, and likeness (NIL).

We have studied the trajectory of NIL legislation, noting that current NIL freedoms came as a result of prior legal disputes against the NCAA (i.e., restrictions on athlete compensation were too strict and college athlete exploitation was of great concern). The NCAA reluctantly followed the lead of state legislations (first in California, now up to 31 others) and relinquished their stronghold on NIL–sort of.

College athletes can now utilize ‘the equalizer’ of NIL legislation to monetize their personal brands without fearing consequences related to their athletic eligibility, which inadvertently empowered them–but not necessarily along the lines of gender equity. NIL has been positioned as the great equalizer, but in practice has become another policy that appears to disparately impact female athletes.

A few examples of positive outcomes that NIL allows can be seen from some of the top athletes in the game. For example, Olivia Dunne (Louisiana State University gymnast) has a valuation of $3.2 million from endorsements with noteworthy brands like American Eagle and Vuori. Louisiana State University hooper Angel Reese also garnered $1.7 million, ranking as the highest-paid female college basketball player. UConn basketball star Paige Bueckers has also made a big swish with a valuation of $641K.

The NIL principles are simple: intercollegiate athletes are free to pursue activities that provide monetary value in the form of cash (and gifts) in exchange for the use of their NIL. The purpose of NIL was/is to provide all intercollegiate athletes the opportunity to access a particular area of the sport & entertainment market they were historically prohibited from entering. Additionally, NIL has sparked the creation of collectives independent from its institution and are structured in a way that provides the resources needed to support NIL activities.

A closer examination of the current state of the policy reveals some undesirable attributes (e.g., NIL ‘portal’ being called the ‘marketplace’). Although NIL has ignited some positive results for intercollegiate and high school athletes during its inaugural two-year period, we are now seeing some concerns with NIL and the ways that it may be reappropriating historic gender conversations related to sexualization.

“I think it could create a more uneven playing field. Because I think bigger companies are just going for, obviously, the bigger names, the bigger sports,” a women’s collegiate volleyball shared in an interview with one of us.

Although, a dark side of progress exists. Many corporations use college athletics as a breeding ground for brand visibility and exposure, giving room for exploitative/hypersexualized practices (i.e., swimsuit photoshoots and directed promotions that include stereotypical imagery) that marginalize certain groups of people. One could always claim that the trajectory of NIL as a sports business enterprise includes unbiased market behaviors that are ‘simply business’–but we cannot ignore the fact that ‘business as usual’ has historically served the elite at the expense of marginalized communities.

Corporations use the brand visibility of these well-known institutions to their advantage and in turn take this as an opportunity to perpetuate many of the problems (i.e., reducing academic practices to mere market calculations) faced by higher education in regard to the gatekeeping undercurrent of ‘opportunity.’

There’s no question that NIL opportunities have grown for college athletes; however, so have concerns about how corporations use their influence to depict college athletes, more specifically female athletes.

Thanks to the continued efforts of player empowerment by former college athletes like Ed O’Bannon and Shawne Alston, NIL is a policy that is here to stay. However, to avoid any further unequal treatment and exploitation of college athletes, future considerations for the policy could include Title IX adherence, along with a board of advisors that oversees NIL practices and decision-making. Perhaps even impose a vetting safeguard to protect against scams, as well as requiring women’s sport programs receive the same amount of NIL deals as the men’s sport programs–which is something that no current institutions are doing. There remain looming concerns regarding the utilization of Title IX, where the policy fits within NIL, and the apparent clash on the horizon at the nexus of NIL and Title IX.

‘The Clash’ of Title IX and NIL has quietly begun with the lack of equality regarding NIL offerings for men vs women athletes, as Title IX was enacted in 1972 to prevent sex-based discrimination regarding offerings of opportunity for any schools that receive federal funding. In fact, it was revealed at an NIL Summit that many of the ‘NIL collectives’ started by universities appear to be focused on opportunities for male athletes more than female athletes–with 95% of collective dollars going to males.

If we are not careful, the business of NIL could be headed down the same path that has led to the scandals, sexploitation, and academic misconduct that it was designed to alleviate.

As Title IX turns 50 this summer, it’s time for female athletes 50 and over to finally win the visibility they deserve.

It’s not as if older female athletes don’t exist; they do. Irene Taylor of Anchorage, Alaska won first place in the recent Boston Marathon for women ages 75-79 years old with a time of 4:41.27.

Other senior women compete regularly at State and National Senior Games, U.S. Masters Swimming, U.S. Masters Diving, and USA Track & Field Masters, among other national senior events.

They are challenging themselves to achieve peak fitness at their local gyms, running in local marathons and half marathons, and shredding the ski slopes. You just may not see them on the 24/7 sports channels.

The International Health, Racquet & Sportsclub Association in its 2020 IHRSA Health Club Consumer Report shows a 34 percent increase in people ages 65 and older going to health clubs since 2010.

Similarly, a 2020 study from the Journal of Medical Internet Research shows that physical exercise for those 65 and older increased during the pandemic, while all other age groups showed a decrease in exercise habits.

Yet a lack of visibility of older women is evident in advertising, fashion, and beauty industries as is the disproportionate representation of youthful women. Vogue Business notes that in Spring/Summer 2020, only one out of 200 models were over the age of 50 and that brands continue to prioritize youth over a realistic depiction of who their customers are.

While older models like 68-year-old Christie Brinkley, 73-year-old Maye Musk, and 90-year-old Carmen Dell’Orefice have made notable splashes, they continue to be the exceptions rather than the rule in youth-oriented industries.

Brinkley was 63 when she was featured in a 2017 Sports Illustrated swimsuit spread, and 57-year-old Kathy Jacobs, was Sports Illustrated Swimsuit rookie of 2021, yet both appeared as slim, sexualized, age-defying bikini nymphs, not matriarchs with aspirational athletic prowess.

In a 2019 study by the American Association of Retired Persons,  researchers chose 1,116 online images from a pool of more than 2.7 million images downloaded from major brands, thought leaders, news sites, and social media with at least one million followers.

They found that only 15% of images depicted adults over the age of 50, although they comprise 46% of the U.S. adult population. And 70% of those images portrayed them in a negative or passive light.

Older minorities fare even worse. Karyne Jones, CEO of the National Caucus and Center on Black Aging, told American Association of Retired Persons recently, “You don’t see images of older Black women buying luxury goods or exercising.”

This invisibility persists even as women over 50 make up more than 52% of the U.S. population.

TV ads targeting the older age demographic seem to figure heavily in pharmaceuticals to ask their doctor about, rather than vigorous activities that would promote health and well-being. However, scientists writing in Frontiers in Physiology suggest that in fact, the elderly athlete “may serve as an example of an optimal healthy human aging.”

Reporting in the International Longevity Centre UK, Liam Hanson of The Business School at City University London writes that his research shows practical barriers are a reason why many find little time to exercise, along with ageism.

The study shows, “Older women therefore face a double whammy of intersecting exclusion from sport – leading to a third not meeting the recommended 150 minutes per week of exercise, and a fifth not exercising for even 30 minutes a week. This may go some of the way towards explaining why older women tend to rank themselves lower than men on several measures of wellbeing, such as self-rated health, satisfaction with life, happiness and even will-to-live.”

The report adds, “To challenge the perception of the sporty type, women of all ages need to see more people like them taking part in sport.”

To be sure, the Olympics feature elite athletes at the peak of performance, which is of course correlated with age, and as one of the most visible platforms for sport, the 2022 Winter Games finally saw a number of older athletes breaking records.

Overall, the dearth of conspicuous representation of older female athletes in sports does little to encourage older women to stay active or enter into new sports in middle age and beyond.

It makes so many feel invisible. It doesn’t have to be this way.

Her victory may inspire other African Americans to take interest in winter sports, but that would require more media attention on such athletes and dispelling long-held stereotypes about Black people and cold weather sports.

With the lighting of the Olympic torch at the iconic “Bird’s Nest” National Stadium in Beijing, China on February 4th, Beijing became the only venue to host both the Summer and Winter Olympics with a Winter Games slogan of “together for a shared future.” It  also had the distinction of being the most gender balanced Olympic Winter Games to date with 55% of athletes being male and 45% female showcasing countless examples of mind-boggling speed, endurance and agility. While representation along gender lines has shown significant improvement, progress has been less apparent when it comes to minorities, with a continued paucity of Black athletes in the Winter Games. At the Pyeongchang, South Korea Winter Olympics in 2018, only 1.45% of the 3,000 athletes participating were Black. This trend continued with the recently concluded 2022 Winter games. Multiple factors contribute to this statistic including low numbers of Black people in some of the competing countries and the higher cost of equipment, travel and coaching associated with winter sports. But there is also the fact that there is lower interest and participation by the Black population because they don’t see others like themselves being involved in such sports. This perpetuates stereotypical phrases such as “Black people don’t like the cold.”

Had Erin Jackson, a native of Ocala, Florida, believed in that she probably would not have made the move from in-line skating to speedskating on ice and become a top-ranked skater at 500 meters . More media coverage on such athletes as well as athletes from other countries like Nigeria and Ghana—who made their debut in 2018  — would serve to provide more exposure of Black athletes to these sports.

When the Jamaican Bobsled team burst onto the scene at the 1988 Winter Olympic games, it proved to be one of the most talked about occurrences in the history of the games. This inspired the 1993 movie “Cool Runnings,” which captured both the “absurdity” and the essence of the ambition of the athletes. 1988 was also the first year that an African American athlete, Debi Thomas won a medal, winning the bronze in figure skating.

Thirty years later, at the 2018 Winter Olympic games, non-white athletes (10 black Olympians and 11 Asian-American Olympians) accounted for slightly less than 9 percent of the American team, according to team data.

Despite the continued under-representation of Black athletes, some progress has been made. There is a slow but steady increase in participation from the Black community giving rise to accomplishments  by  notable Black athletes like Shani Davis, the first African American to win a gold medal in individual competition, and Bobsledder Elana Meyers Taylor who made history at the recently concluded  games by becoming the most decorated Black athlete in Winter Olympics and also the most decorated female Olympic Bobsledder.

On the other hand, Black athletes are by no means an unusual sight in the Summer Olympics. According to reports, black athletes made up 23 percent of the US team that competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro and have shown dominance in certain sports such as track and field. Since the first Black participant in 1900, a Haitian by the name of Constantin Henriquez, who won a gold medal in the 1900 Olympic rugby tournament as a part of the French team, barriers continue to be broken. In more recent times, participation in sports such as swimming, diving and gymnastics have given rise to now familiar names like Simone Manuel and Simone Biles, whose successes were preceded by trailblazing Black athletes who defied stereotypical narratives.

These stereotypical thoughts are not only present at an elite level of athletics, but also spill over into the recreational arena. As a runner, I am often struck by the low numbers of Black participants in races or even in run clubs. Running USA’s biannual National Runner Survey of almost 12,000 respondents between January and May of 2011, revealed only 1.6% of marathon runners in America are African American. But even at less taxing distances, Black participation remains low and the phrase “Black people don’t run” is still perpetuated. The organizations Black Girls Run and Black Men Run have tried to counter this notion by their very names and strive to normalize participation of the Black community. The New York Road Runners encourages diversity in running through programs in public schools. Other avenues such as increased representation in the media would also facilitate greater visibility of Black people engaging in physical activity.

Analysis of National Surveillance data showed that only 24-36% of Black adults report regular physical activity, which is highest among men, younger age groups, highest education and income groups, employed and married, overweight (but not obese men), and normal-weight women.

The consequences of insufficient leisure time physical activity are far reaching and consequential, being linked to heart disease and its risk factors of obesity, hypertension, high cholesterol as well as breast and prostate cancer, falls, dementia and depression.

Studies show that physical inactivity is associated with a 14% increase in the co-existence of two or more chronic diseases (multimorbidity), and others show that any increase in activity will reduce the risk of adverse health outcomes and mortality. Black middle-aged adults have chronic disease burden and multimorbidity, which occurs four years earlier than their white counterparts.

Visibility, motivation, opportunity, and education will play a huge role in overcoming the barriers, stereotypes and blind adherence to cultural norms associated with the Black community at the elite and recreational levels. Representation, by increasing potential avenues available to the Black community, has a role to play in improving the long-term consequences of physical inactivity, which are particularly problematic for Black people.

Meanwhile, the Jamaican Bobsled team once again made history having participated in three events at the Beijing Winter Olympics including a four-man team, for the first time in 24 years, as well as adding their first Alpine skier to their team.

Watching sporting competitions such as the National Football League (NFL) has held great entertainment value for America’s viewing audience, especially over the past year and a half during the global pandemic. However, the ugly truth is that there is blatant racism, sexism, and heterosexism within elite sporting cultures to include youth, intercollegiate, professional and Olympic levels.

As the Executive Director of the Institute for the Study of Sport, Society and Social Change that promotes programs and webinars, conducts educational trainings with college and professional sport teams like Major League Soccer’s San José Earthquakes, and develops rising sports professionals, I know the work of equity, diversity, and inclusion is not over. Anti-racist efforts are not over. Anti-sexist, anti-misogynistic and ceasing sexual harassment efforts are not over. Anti-homophobic efforts are not over. Intolerance of difference is not over.    

As an educator in higher education for over 15 years and a former college athlete, when I communicate with teams, and college students, I inform them these are deeply systemic issues that cannot be fixed overnight.

Gruden’s communications and characterizations of players and leadership is just the tip of the iceberg.The fact that all the people who received and circulated Gruden’s offensive emails said nothing points to two larger problems here: the preservation of culture and the lack of transparency in the NFL.

According to Dr. Richard Lapchick’s Racial and Gender Report Card published annually by The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport (TIDES) at the University of Central Florida, approximately 70% of the players in the NFL are people of color of which 57.5% are Black. There are 35.6% assistant coaches of color, 30.5% of those are Black, in addition there are 8 women and 3 women of color in the position of assistant coaches. Moving up the leadership ranks among the 32 NFL teams, there are only 3 Black head coaches and 2 Black general managers. These are disheartening representation numbers in light of the Rooney Rule’s requirement that NFL teams interview one candidate of color in the leadership positions. Nevertheless, participation and leadership are only part of the sporting culture that work to shape and uphold the “values, beliefs, habits, patterns of thinking and styles of communication” within the NFL.

Consider this, after decades of protests against the offensive naming of the Washington Redskins, it was not until July 2020, following the murder of George Floyd, the resurgence of the BLM movement, and statements of solidarity that the team conceded to change their name.

To be sure, this is not a new issue—the NFL as well as most professional sports, mirror greater society and are mired in a history of racism, sexism, homophobia, ethnocentrism, ableism and so much more. Choosing to ignore these facts will only make things worst by exacerbating conditions and maintaining a culture discrimination and felt marginalization.

Change is slow. In my work, I explain that these issues are also related to other acts of relegation – including intimidation, fear, retaliation and an overall toxic workplace environment. I guide teams towards understanding how the effects of negative treatment can hinder player and employee productivity.

Living at the proverbial “intersections” of race and gender as an African American female, I share the benefits of an inclusive team and organizational culture, or inclusive excellence. This comprehensive concept welcomes access, education, community engagement in addition to the development of an organizational infrastructure to integrate inclusive programs and practices.

Therefore, given the billions of dollars that sports organizations make on the labor of Black, Latinx, Asian, Indigenous, and multiracial athletes, these are long overdue issues that must be addressed now. Real social change comes with communication, collective action, and evaluation of change and progress.

Raiders Quarterback Derek Carr said, “Open up everything.” The 650,000+ emails reveal that there is a blatant case of hegemonic culture in the NFL. Such influence creates a discriminatory environment that limits access, opportunity, and promotion as well as a positive experience. Voices weighing in concur, we don’t need to wait for the release of more emails or further evidence in order to act. It is time to level the playing field and trust the players advocating for change in the NFL and beyond.

In the last year we’ve seen how difficult it is to convey scientific information to the public, especially when politicians were involved.  While we’re vaccinating 3 million Americans a day, many people still question whether they should take the vaccine, even though President Biden and Vice President Harris both did so on live TV. Former President Trump said he was taking hydroxychloroquine while experts recommended otherwise leading people to stock up on the drug and keep it from patients who needed it to treat other conditions. We toggled on the importance of masks – first no, then yes now double, leading many to reject mask wearing on spacious grounds.

Science has become political, making it much more difficult to message proper public health precautions effectively, especially through traditional news sources that are losing people’s trust.  To compensate for this lack of faith, we weigh whether to refine the message or change the messenger, when really it might be the medium that’s the problem.

That’s why we should tap sports journalism to impart health information.

Sports and COVID-19 collided initially when they had to be cancelled for fear of large events spreading the virus. To this day, players are pulled and games postponed because of infections. But even if teams were unaffected by COVID, there’s a natural affinity for imparting necessary health information in sports coverage. Part of sports news is the physical status of players, their injuries, the ways their physical characteristics like height and weight impart advantages.

ESPN has medical experts — Drs. Mark Adickes and Michael Kaplan —  and physical therapist Stephania Bell, but examination of their recent coverage of the pandemic shows that they’re kind of married to injury explanation — which is beneficial information but does little to convince people to change their behaviors outside exercise. Their coverage generally doesn’t include larger medical topics and they’re definitely not focused on broad public health messaging.

A sports medical correspondent — say, ESPN’s version of CNN’s Sanjay Gupta — could dive deeper into subjects like vaccine efficacy or variants. In truth, last year’s NBA bubble was one of the great successes in terms of masking and social distancing and it should have been hailed as much from a scientific perspective in sports media. Doing so could have educated millions about how to conduct business safely during the pandemic. But the medical experts and reporters didn’t do that.

Feeding the public accurate and helpful health information through programming isn’t a new idea. When the NBC drama “ER” aired, the Kaiser Family Foundation conducted telephone surveys of viewers and found that they absorbed more information from entertainment programming than they would have otherwise.  Specifically, the number of viewers who heard of Human Papillomavirus (HPV)  nearly doubled in the week after an episode about it, from 24% to 47%. The number who could correctly define HPV and who were aware of its link to cervical cancer tripled. Sneaking health information into television programming that isn’t ostensibly designed to educate can work to teach the public on the best ways to avoid the novel coronavirus and get out of this pandemic

A medical correspondent on sports channels can outlast this crisis. Sports coverage opportunes several discussions about health problems that affect the general public. A couple of basketball players have suffered from blood clots – a common, but possibly fatal condition; former Toronto Raptors and Miami Heat Chris Bosh retired from complications from them and, while he didn’t retire because of it, Los Angeles Lakers and now New Orleans Pelicans’ Brandon Ingram also had a blood clot.  

Pulmonary embolism affects 300,000-600,000 Americans a year.  Because sports media lacks medical sports correspondents to report that to the audience when these health bulletins came across the news, we missed an opportunity to bring more attention to Venous Thromboembolism (VTE) and explain the risks of exercise with blood clots while on blood thinners. A fuller explanation of the signs and symptoms can reach an audience that isn’t necessarily looking for that exact information. For example, a young boy could see this and notice swelling in one of his parent’s legs and urge them to seek care.

A medical correspondent in sports media isn’t a substitute for access to a licensed medical professional for sure. But having one takes a first step toward raising awareness and bringing evidence-based science into national discussion even when — especially when — the audience isn’t ready for it.

This isn’t to say that sports haven’t become politicized; they have. From Colin Kapernick’s kneeling to Major League Baseball’s recent move of its All-Star game from Atlanta — a decision that inspired more backlash, namely the Texas Governor refusing to throw the first pitch for the Texas Rangers’, notably a team formerly owned by past President George W. Bush — sports and politics aren’t exactly running on parallel tracks. Sports viewership has decreased and some attribute this due to increased politicization.

But not using sports to impart health information is hitting them where they ain’t. Even with decreased viewership, the Super Bowl attracted nearly 96.4 million viewers. In the thick of the election cycle in September 2020, ESPN was the second most watched network after Fox News. ESPN led MSNBC and CNN by over one million viewers a week.  More importantly, ESPN isn’t considered a biased media source — compared to the traditional news sources where people get their news from. Besides, doctors, not newscasters, are still trusted the most worldwide. The problem is that audiences see them now on the news, which they trust less. We’re limiting their effectiveness by broadcasting them there.

Sometimes we forget it, but sports journalism values narrative and information as much as any other type of mass communication. We’re throwing away our shot if we continue to keep health information — delivered through a dedicated medical correspondent — from this media.

Growing up, I heard my family’s stories of oppression and injustice, yet they always seemed like something that happened somewhere else at some other time. I last visited South Africa when I was eight and not yet old enough to grasp the importance of where I was, but when I traveled to Auschwitz-Birkenau with my team a few years ago and actually saw what happens when hatred and discrimination are allowed to reign free, it was one of those “If I was somewhere else at some other time” moments that made me start to question what my life outside of basketball would like.

After the deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd, I had a realization. It wasn’t somewhere else at some other time, and it wasn’t up to someone else to fight this battle. It was right here, right now, and I had to decide who I wanted to be: a college basketball player or a warrior for the cause. I chose both.

I still want to be an NBA player. I’m an athlete, and that’s always been my goal. However, as much as I love playing basketball, at the end of the day what I really want is to make a difference and to inspire other people to make a difference. As I watched a country in tumult, I realized that as a college basketball player, I had a unique opportunity to use my platform to put my frustrations and sentiments to good use and at the same time provide an educational resource for the younger generation to help inspire and empower them and bring issues like racial equality and social justice to the forefront.

With the help of Dr. Stacy Gallin, who was instrumental in bringing our team to Auschwitz and continued to mentor me on my quest to become an active agent of social change, I decided to start a program called College Athletes for Respect and Equality (CARE). Our mission is to raise awareness about systemic racial injustice to create change and promote human dignity and equality by educating and empowering the next generation. We focus on fostering solidarity and unity, developing athlete-activists engaged in community outreach and implementing programs and policies that will make a lasting change.

I didn’t want this to be a one-time thing- a statement or a march. I wanted it to be something that will last and really make a difference. It’s one thing to voice an opinion when everyone else is doing it, but its another thing to try and keep the conversation moving and to keep people cognizant of these issues and to try and make progress on a continuous basis. We’ve seen events like the murder of George Floyd cause outrage before, until the urgency fades and life moves on. That wasn’t something that, given my family’s history and what I’ve seen my grandparents fight for, I felt would be enough.

After the election, like so many other people, I breathed a huge sigh of relief. Seeing the record turnout in votes revealed the frustration of so many who felt their voices weren’t being heard or represented. It seemed like a chance for a new beginning. However, what I’ve learned from basketball is that you can’t ever let your guard down. If you want to win, you have to keep practicing, keep trying your hardest and never settle. This is my senior year, and I’m playing basketball at Davidson College for the last time. I know so many of my peers are experiencing the pressure that comes with the season- particularly this year with the added challenge of COVID-19. However, just as we don’t give up on the court, we can’t give up off the court either. It’s our time to use our platform to be leaders and agents of change.

The CARE Initiative has never been about me. It’s about realizing that there are some things in life that are more important than our sport. It’s about the importance of staying engaged and trying to be part of the solution rather than settling into complacency. It’s about having an impact on younger kids who look up to college athletes and providing a forum for college athletes to make their voices heard. It’s about what we, as a group of college athletes, can do together.

But what’s even more impressive is her love for her former players and her ability to dissect the game even now that she has retired from coaching. She is a true living legend, and we are blessed to have her still involved in the game that she loves.

Awards

1984 – Russell Athletic/WBCA National Coach of the Year
1986 – Russell Athletic/WBCA National Coach of the Year
1998 – Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame
Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame
1995 – International Women’s Sports Hall of Fame
International Scholar-Athlete Hall of Fame
Texas Women’s Hall of Fame
1997 – Texas Sports Hall of Fame
UT Women’s Athletics Hall of Honor
Carol Eckman Award – Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (1987)
Outstanding Commitment to Women’s Athletics – National Association for Girls and Women in Sports (1991)
Harvey Penick Award for Excellence in the Game of Life – Caritas of Austin (2003)
CASEY Award – Kansas City Sports Association (2004)
Conference Coach of the Year – 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1996, 2003, 2004
National Coach of the Year – 1980, 1984, 1986, 1997, 2003, 2004
Lifetime Achievement Award – 2010 by National Association Collegiate Women Athletics Administrators (NACWAA)

Milestones

First women’s basketball collegiate coach to reach 700 career victories
Coached first NCAA Division I women’s basketball team to an undefeated season and an NCAA National Championship (1986)
First active women’s basketball collegiate coach (and second overall after trophy namesake Margaret Wade) to be enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame
99% graduation rate for the individuals on her teams

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