Women in Sports Focus of Sport and Society Conference Hosted by St. Norbert College and the Packers

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From St. Norbert College, April 29, 2014
by Mike Counter, mike.counter@snc.edu, 920-403-3089

An award-winning journalist and a Hall of Fame coach will be two of the featured speakers at the academic conference "A Mirror of Our Culture: Sport and Society in America." This national conference will be hosted by St. Norbert College and the Green Bay Packers, May 19-21, 2014, and will focus on women in sports.

Christine Brennan, considered the country's most widely read female sports journalist, will speak on "Title IX Plus 40: the Incredible Success of Women in Sports, From the Front Office to the Press Box to the Playing Field," Tuesday, May 20, from 9:15 to 10:15 a.m. in the Walter Theatre of the Abbot Pennings Hall of Fine Arts at St. Norbert College. Muffet McGraw, a two-time consensus national Coach of the Year at the University of Notre Dame, will talk on "Women in Leadership" on May 20, at 7:30 p.m. at Walter Theatre. Both talks will be free and open to the public. No tickets are required. Admission is first come, first served.

Christine Brennan is an award-winning sports columnist for USA Today, an ABC News and ESPN commentator, an NPR Morning Edition contributor, a best-selling author and a nationally known speaker. Twice named one of the country's top 10 sports columnists by the Associated Press' sports editors, she has covered 14 consecutive Olympic games, summer and winter.
Brennan was the first woman sports writer at the Miami Herald in 1981 and the first woman to cover the Washington Redskins as a staff writer at the Washington Post in 1985. She was the first president of the Association for Women in Sports Media and started an internship/scholarship program that now honors nine female students annually.

She is the author of seven books. Her 2006 sports memoir, "Best Seat in the House," was the first father-daughter memoir written by a sports writer. Her 1996 best-seller, "Inside Edge," was named one of the top 100 sports books of all time by Sports Illustrated.

Brennan broke the news of the pairs figure-skating scandal at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics. Her USA Today column in April 2002 on Augusta National Golf Club triggered the debate on the club's lack of female members. In December 2002, Sports Illustrated's Golf Plus section named her one of golf's 12 Heroes of the Year.
Ann "Muffet" McGraw just finished her 27th season (32nd overall) as head women's basketball coach at the University of Notre Dame. Her program is known for consistency and excellence.

Under McGraw, the Fighting Irish have made four trips to the NCAA Division I national championship game. McGraw led Notre Dame to the 2001 national championship by beating Purdue in the title game. She is one of just three active Division I coaches (and seven all-time) with at least three appearances in the NCAA national championship game.

McGraw has 21 NCAA tournament appearances, including a current string of 19 consecutive tournament berths (the sixth-longest active run and eighth-longest streak at any time in NCAA tournament history). During this current streak (1996-2013), Notre Dame has won at least one NCAA postseason game 17 times.

On June 11, 2011, McGraw was the first Notre Dame representative to be inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame.

The conference is the third of its kind put on by St. Norbert and the Packers; the first was held in 2010. This partnership between an NFL team and an institution of higher education brings together academics and business professionals from around the country.

The Packers have held their summer training camp at St. Norbert College for 56 years, the longest such relationship between a pro football team and a college in the NFL.

The conference fee of $195 includes access to all keynote speeches and concurrent sessions, the conference dinner, luncheons at Lambeau Field and St. Norbert College, and several coffee breaks daily. Conference attendees will also be provided a guided tour of Lambeau Field, admission to the traveling exhibit "Linedrives and Lipstick: The Untold Story of Women's Baseball" and screenings of sports-related films.

For more information on the conference, go to http://www.snc.edu/sportandsociety, or contact Karen Cleereman, conference administrative coordinator, at sportandsociety@snc.edu or 920-403-3777.

The Center for Ethical Youth Coaching and the International Sports Professionals Association are sponsors of the 2014 Sport and Society conference.