Conradt to receive Lapchick Character Award
Aug. 16, 2010
NEW YORK -- Former Texas Women's Basketball coach Jody Conradt has been named one of three recipients of the 2010 Lapchick Character Awards. Conradt, fellow Hall of Fame coach Bob Hurley, Sr. (St. Anthony's (N.J.) HS), and former Purdue Men's Basketball coach Gene Keady will be honored at the semifinals of the 2010 2K Sports Classic benefiting Coaches vs. Cancer at New York's Madison Square Garden on Nov. 18. (Texas Men's Basketball will meet Illinois in the second semifinal of the tournament at approximately 8:30 p.m. Central) The award, started three years ago by a group including Joe Lapchick-biographer and former player Gus Alfieri, recognizes coaches who have shown the character traits and coaching skills of the Hall of Famer who coached St. John's and the New York Knicks. Past winners of the award include Lou Carnesecca, Jack Curran, Dean Smith, Pat Summitt, John Thompson and the late Kay Yow. Conradt was one of the pioneers of the women's college game. She led Texas to an undefeated national championship in 1986 and three Final Fours and was only the second coach inducted into the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame in 1998. Conradt retired from coaching in March of 2007 after compiling a 900-307 all-time collegiate coaching record. In her 38 years as a collegiate head coach - the last 31 at Texas - Conradt was just the second collegiate coach to reach 900 career victories. Off the court, Conradt's player graduation rate was an impressive 99 percent for all student-athletes who exhausted their athletic eligibility. Her Texas student-athletes were selected for 22 Academic All-Big 12 honors and four Academic All-America honors Also enshrined in the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame, Conradt developed 28 professional basketball players (who played in the USA and in Europe), four Olympians, three players who earned numerous national player of the year honors and eight Kodak All-Americans.
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