'An Amazing Journey': The Karen Womack Story

When Karen Womack looks back on her life in athletics, she only has one regret.

The longtime Miami athletic administrator (and 2022 MAC Hall of Fame inductee) got to do just about everything in sports over her career, with one glaring exception.

She didn't get to play.

Wally Szczerbiak and Karen Womack were
recently inducted into the MAC Hall of Fame

That's because Womack, a 1964 graduate of the University of Kentucky, grew up in a time before Title IX.

As a young girl in the Bluegrass State, Womack loved sports as much as anybody, and has fond memories of her first basketball hoop ('on an electric pole!') and of catching baseballs from her dad in the backyard.

However, there was no avenue for her to compete.

"We didn't have any athletics for girls in high school, but I always knew I liked sports," Womack said. "The closest I could get was physical education, so I majored in that at Kentucky."

Womack and some of the other UK students were able to participate in 'play day' opportunities, where she got to try her hand at field hockey in the fall, basketball in the winter, and softball in the spring. But those chances were few and far between.

"I bet we didn't have five competitions, maybe, in each of those sports," she said. "It wasn't like it is today; it wasn't the focus. I'm not even sure if we practiced!"

No practice. No uniforms. No coaches.

Oh, and no trainers.

In fact, Womack's first-ever visit to Miami University was a basketball 'play day.' Different colleges would bring their No. 1 team, No. 2 team, No. 3 team, and so on to play scrimmages against a handful of other schools' similarly-talented players. Womack remembers coming to old Withrow Court as a student with her Kentucky group…and promptly spraining her ankle in a game. But that wasn't enough to force her off the floor: "I just limped my way through!"

After Womack graduated from college, she went on to teach at a high school in Shelbyville, Ind. before getting her master's degree from Indiana University and accepting a job at Eastern Illinois. That led to a role at Texas Tech University, coaching the game she'd never really gotten to play herself. "I was hired as Texas Tech's assistant intramural director, but basically I was hired to coach women's basketball," Womack laughed. "Texas was one of the states that was ahead of some others in what they offered to high school girls, so they had good basketball out there."

From there, Womack moved on to Tulane University and Newcomb College (its women's branch). Tulane wanted to start a women's basketball team, and Womack was the right person for the job (even though, once again, the position title wasn't actually 'basketball coach,' but rather, 'physical education instructor').

Karen Womack — Womack (right) was the first coach in Tulane women's basketball
history before coming to Miami as an administrator in 1980

Through her different career stops, she continued to take advantage of every chance she had to study hoops and soak up knowledge about the game she loved the most. "You can hardly be from Kentucky and not like basketball!," Womack joked.

When she was a high school cheerleading advisor, her squad practiced in the gym at the same time the boys basketball team did, so she studied the coach and his approach to the game. When she was on staff at different universities, she would find her way to seminars with Bobby Knight and other influential coaches of the day.

"I just tried to avail myself of any opportunities to learn more about basketball and study it," she said. "It was just a process of osmosis, kind of sucking up all the information I could find. By the time I got to Tulane, I felt like I was pretty comfortable in understanding the game."

Building a program from the ground up in New Orleans was a challenge, especially with more established (and better-funded) teams like LSU and Louisiana Tech just down the road. The volleyball coach served as Womack's basketball assistant, and Womack returned the favor as an assistant during volleyball season. "We were probably better at moral support than we were at the fundamentals," she said. "But it was fun, and it gave us a chance to work."

Many of the top athletes at the time played both sports, and scholarships were at a minimum. It took several years before Womack was able to offer athletic aid to an incoming player, and those scholarships were usually reserved for dual-sport athletes. "I still remember the day one young lady came over to our offices and we offered her that [first] scholarship," Womack said. "She was the most excited, thrilled young woman you have ever seen! And so appreciative.

"It was just her whole world. We all left that meeting feeling so good. We were thrilled she wanted to come play for us, and she ran out of there at top speed, because she was so excited.

"It was such a step forward. And it was so heartwarming to see how it affected that young lady."

Womack coached five seasons at Tulane from 1975-1980, posting winning records in each of her final three campaigns. In addition to her 'day job' as a P.E. instructor, she also served as the vice president of the Louisiana AIAW (Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women), a forerunner to the NCAA. It was administrative experience that would serve Womack well in her next (and final) career stop, as she accepted a role in Miami's athletic department in 1980.

Karen Womack hiring release — Miami announced Womack's hiring as Assistant Athletic
Director with this press release in June 1980

"Coming to Miami was the best decision of my life," Womack said. As a senior-level administrator —initially with the title of assistant athletic director— she had a variety of responsibilities, including everything from compliance to supervision of women's sports.

Many of the women's athletic facilities in Oxford then had unique challenges. For example, the softball field had no outfield fence. "If someone hit the ball well and it got past our outfielders, it rolled forever!" The field hockey field had a walking path cut diagonally through it. Womack also remembers going over to Withrow Court before volleyball games just to check and make sure there weren't any nails sticking up through the floor.

Year by year, things improved for women's sports on campus, and Womack was a big part of that, building on the work of her predecessor Elaine Hieber. The result? Miami's teams began winning championships.

Over the next quarter-century (and then some), Womack continued to make an impact throughout the department. She served under five different athletic directors, even holding the interim athletic director role at one point herself. (Her other titles through the years would include executive associate athletic director and senior woman administrator.)

She is credited with helping transition Miami women's sports from the AIAW into the NCAA, overseeing club teams' growth into varsity teams, being involved in the addition of new sports, eliminating academic teaching loads for head coaches, and serving as a driving force behind Miami's gender equity self-evaluation in 1993 (including helping to implement the recommendations from that process). Womack also served on a number of Mid-American Conference committees, including the Compliance Committee, the Gender Equity Committee, the Committee on Coordinators of Officials, and as chair for volleyball championships.

Eventually, she became Miami's sport administrator for some men's sports, including (fittingly) basketball. Still, through it all, she continued to pitch in and do whatever was necessary to help advance the awareness and quality of women's athletics. Color commentator for women's basketball? Sure. Public address announcer for volleyball? Why not?

"The best thing about it was the people," Womack said. "We had great people here.

"From the administrative staff through the coaches, the support staff, and everybody, they were really invested in the university and invested in our student athletes, and it was a great environment to work in."

Womack credits former athletic director Dick Shrider with bringing in excellent coaches, and she enjoyed working to support them while also functioning as a bridge between the coaching staff and administration.

"Dick had a knack for understanding people," Womack said. "He hired some outstanding coaches –some young coaches at the time– and, to a person, they were successful because they just had the right values and right attitude about student-athletes.

"Miami was a strong academic school, and our coaches all understood that, and recruited to it. Working with such caring and dedicated individuals really made the job pleasant."

In the last 15 years since her retirement, Womack has continued to watch women's sports grow and change. And as 2022 marks the 50th anniversary of the landmark Title IX signing, someone who knows exactly how far women's athletics has come undoubtedly has the best perspective on where it is now.

"Of course, I'm thrilled," Womack said. "I'm thrilled that [Title IX] happened, and that we were able to finally move women's athletics to where we are today. And I'm amazed when I watch these women athletes today…they come in with such skill for the game. I just shake my head sometimes and think, 'Wow.'

"When I was at Tulane, we recruited a 5-foot-11 player as a center…Today, the guards are six feet! Not only have the skill levels increased, but so has their athleticism.

"It just goes to show, when you give people opportunities, what can happen and how that can develop."

As Womack looks back on her extensive and successful career in athletics, she doesn't like the term 'pioneer' or 'trailblazer', although some may beg to differ. Simply put, she doesn't think any fancy terms are necessary.

"It was just an amazing journey through the world of women's athletics," Womack said. "I've had a great life...

"It's been an interesting journey. And I really liked it."

Find more Front Row Features at MiamiRedHawks.com/FrontRowFeatures.

'An Amazing Journey': The Karen Womack Story

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