Seattle4UT
1,000+ Posts
Conradt Knows Perfection
By PHIL HICKS
Sports Editor
A couple of nights ago, the University of Connecticut became the fifth NCAA Division I women's basketball program to complete an unbeaten national championship season.
On Wednesday night, the first coach to accomplish that feat visited Tyler.
Jody Conradt, the former University of Texas women's basketball coach, was the special guest of the Texas Exes Tyler-Smith County Network Spring Scholarship Fundraiser at Willow Brook Country Club.
"I still get asked about that 1986 team all the time," Conradt said of her squad which was 34-0. "I may be partial, but I feel that team could compete with the University of Connecticut team of this year."
Since retiring from coaching two years ago, Conradt now serves as special assistant to UT women's athletics director Christine Plonsky, who was also in attendance.
Conradt won 900 games during her 38-year coaching career, which also included stops at Sam Houston State University and the University of Texas at Arlington. She was the Longhorns head coach for 31 years. Also, 99 percent of her letter winners graduated.
She was the second woman inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, one of six Halls of Fame she is a member.
Conradt still enjoys basketball and all UT athletics and expects second-year coach Gail Goestenkors to get the Longhorns back to the Final Four.
"It is a challenge in the Big 12, but Gail is up for the task," said Conradt of the coach who moved from Duke to UT. "Duke is not the University of Texas and the University of Texas is not Duke. It takes time. At Duke, Gail was mainly dealing with summer league coaches and here in Texas you work with high school coaches and there are some 1,200 high schools in Texas.
"When Mack (Brown, UT football coach) came here he re-established a connection with the high school coaches and that is what Gail will do."
Conradt, an avid golfer, played Crown Colony Country Club in Lufkin Tuesday and followed it up with a round of golf Wednesday at Willow Brook.
In her speech, Conradt told of how UT women's athletics began in the 1930s with physical education and how it has grown into a multi-million dollar model for women's collegiate athletics.
By PHIL HICKS
Sports Editor
A couple of nights ago, the University of Connecticut became the fifth NCAA Division I women's basketball program to complete an unbeaten national championship season.
On Wednesday night, the first coach to accomplish that feat visited Tyler.
Jody Conradt, the former University of Texas women's basketball coach, was the special guest of the Texas Exes Tyler-Smith County Network Spring Scholarship Fundraiser at Willow Brook Country Club.
"I still get asked about that 1986 team all the time," Conradt said of her squad which was 34-0. "I may be partial, but I feel that team could compete with the University of Connecticut team of this year."
Since retiring from coaching two years ago, Conradt now serves as special assistant to UT women's athletics director Christine Plonsky, who was also in attendance.
Conradt won 900 games during her 38-year coaching career, which also included stops at Sam Houston State University and the University of Texas at Arlington. She was the Longhorns head coach for 31 years. Also, 99 percent of her letter winners graduated.
She was the second woman inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, one of six Halls of Fame she is a member.
Conradt still enjoys basketball and all UT athletics and expects second-year coach Gail Goestenkors to get the Longhorns back to the Final Four.
"It is a challenge in the Big 12, but Gail is up for the task," said Conradt of the coach who moved from Duke to UT. "Duke is not the University of Texas and the University of Texas is not Duke. It takes time. At Duke, Gail was mainly dealing with summer league coaches and here in Texas you work with high school coaches and there are some 1,200 high schools in Texas.
"When Mack (Brown, UT football coach) came here he re-established a connection with the high school coaches and that is what Gail will do."
Conradt, an avid golfer, played Crown Colony Country Club in Lufkin Tuesday and followed it up with a round of golf Wednesday at Willow Brook.
In her speech, Conradt told of how UT women's athletics began in the 1930s with physical education and how it has grown into a multi-million dollar model for women's collegiate athletics.
