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Huston Hurlbut thought, upon receiving an internship with
the ECAC after graduating from Penn in 1983, that a one-year
position in athletics administration would help get sports
out of her system. She could not possibly have imagined that
nearly 20 years later, she would be serving in a top
administrative position with a successful, professional
women’s sports league. But, as Director of Basketball
Operations for the Women’s National Basketball
Association (WNBA) since 1999, Hurlbut is doing just that.
Conflicts she manages today are much different from the
early 1980s, when as a student member of the Penn
Women’s Athletic Advisory Board, she’d duke it out
with administrators over equal uniforms and equipment.
However, her passion and belief in the promise and potential
of women’s athletics has remained steady and unwavering
throughout her career, even as female sports, and her
involvement with it, have changed drastically since she
began.
In the years that Hurlbut attended Penn, the world of
college athletics was changing rapidly. The Association of
Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW), which had
administered women’s college sports for decades, was
facing a battle for control of the arena with the NCAA. With
the passing of Title IX and the required increase in
funding, the NCAA saw the opportunity to take charge of
women’s athletics. During this time, Ivy League
institutions strengthened their resolve to administer
quality women’s programs and increase opportunities for
female athletes. Hurlbut remembers that the paltry
conditions for girls’ sports in high school contrasted
starkly with the resources available to her as a field
hockey and lacrosse athlete at Penn. “My experiences in
high school were so drastically different than at Penn, that
while it certainly wasn’t on par with the men’s
programs, I thought we were treated pretty well,”
Hurlbut remembers. “Everybody’s expectations were
different then. Maybe it was naivety, because we were 18,
because we now had two coaches for every sport instead the
one coach we had in high school, but we were on Franklin
Field, and we played all of our games on that field. I
always thought it was pretty good.”
Of course, “pretty good” doesn’t mean that
the situation couldn’t be better. Hurlbut was a member
of the Women’s Athletic Advisory Board, a collection of
students across all women’s sports at Penn who served
as a voice for female athletes. She would have meetings with
then-athletics director, Charles Harris. During these
discussions, she would press for more equitable treatment
between the men’s and women’s programs at Penn.
Reminiscing about the quest for university-provided sports
bras and laundry privileges, Hurlbut recalls that her
interactions with Harris taught and prepared her for her
future career. “We used to hammer that stuff out over
his desk and he was such a great person for me to learn
from. He would give you all the attention and help you focus
on the issue in a way that helped me tremendously at that
age.” Harris also helped Hurlbut begin her career in
sports administration, offering her an internship in the
athletic department during her senior year at Penn, when
injury forced her off the field.
Following her graduation from Penn, Hurlbut joined the
Eastern College Athletics Conference (ECAC), the
nation’s largest athletic conference, as an intern in
charge of establishing women’s championships and public
relations. As would be the situation several times during
Hurlbut’s career, she entered an organization on the
brink of change and saw her job evolve in its
responsibilities. In this case, the EAIAW was being
consolidated into the ECAC, presenting an opportunity for
many new members, championships, and opportunities for
women’s collegiate sports on the East Coast. After one
year in the internship, the ECAC hired Hurlbut full-time as
an assistant commissioner overseeing women’s
sports.
The next step in Hurlbut’s path, in the fall of 1986,
would be back to a familiar arena&emdash;the Ivy League.
Having participated as a student-athlete within the league,
Hurlbut jumped at the opportunity to serve in an
administrative capacity with the conference. As associate
director for public information, Hurlbut coordinated the
first efforts at League-wide publicity. She pushed hard for
equal visibility of men’s and women’s Ivy sports,
working to increase coverage in the annual record book, the
weekly releases, and the development of a basketball media
guide. While her role started primarily as a sports
information director, athletics compliance was becoming a
rapidly growing area within administration. After a couple
of years, her responsibilities shifted to compliance,
overseeing the member institutions and coordinating
information with the NCAA.
Hurlbut would stay with the Ivy League for seven years,
before she was presented with an opportunity to become the
first woman to lead an all-sport, co-ed Division I athletic
conference. In 1993, Hurlbut accepted the position as
commissioner of the Patriot League, a Division I-AA
conference consisting of schools such as Bucknell, Lehigh,
and Lafayette. Historically, the Ivy and Patriot Leagues
have shared the common philosophy of trying to find the
ideal balance between academic success and athletics
achievement, choosing to err when necessary on the side of
academics. The proximity of the conference offices has also
led to a close working relationship between the two leagues.
Hurlbut, therefore, was familiar with many administrators
within the Patriot League, as well as with the principles of
a league that did not allow for athletically-related
financial aid, more commonly referred to as
scholarships.
However, once again Hurlbut would find herself on the brink
of change. In 1996, the league adopted a new policy which
would the first time allow for scholarships, although only
in the sport of basketball. The league maintained its
founding principle of having student-athletes that were
academically representative of the entire student body, but
definitely faced new challenges as it tried to balance its
objectives and the demands placed upon high-caliber college
athletics. Hurlbut stood up to the challenge and became a
well-respected administrator throughout the NCAA. During her
years at the Patriot League, she assumed many NCAA committee
responsibilities, having the opportunity to influence
policies beyond the scope of just her conference or region.
As a member of the Division Management Council, Hurlbut had
a seat at the table which had some of the greatest
decision-making power within the NCAA.
Interestingly enough, Charles Harris, her former athletics
director while a student at Penn, now serves as chair of
that same council, beginning his term just as Hurlbut left
for her next opportunity. This would not be the only time
that a former Penn administrator would follow Hurlbut’s
path. When she departed the Patriot League for the WNBA in
1999, she would be replaced by Carolyn Schlie Femovich, a
former athletics adminstrator of Penn. As a student-athlete,
Hurlbut served on the search committee for the position that
Femovich would assume. In fact, Hurlbut remembers the hiring
of Femovich as a sign to her at that time that women could
have careers in sports administration, giving her some
encouragement as she decided to apply for the ECAC
internship.
The WBNA, in its third season when Hurlbut arrived on the
scene, had begun to capture the hearts of its fans, and more
importantly to the league’s survival, their wallets as
well. Assuming the position of Director of Basketball
Operations, Hurlbut’s focus changed dramatically, from
ensuring the highest quality experience possible for college
athletes to the pragmatism of big business. In
Hurlbut’s words, from an business executive’s
view, the WNBA was “not about opportunities [for
athletes], but about dates and buildings, people and
seats, and hot dogs and beer sold.” While agreeing that
the association takes on a very business-like approach to
women’s sports, Hurlbut asserts that this is a positive
attribute, not a negative one. “There’s so much
money invested, that you have to treat it [as a
business]. Women’s sports deserves to be treated in
that model.”
Aside from business, Hurlbut proudly talks of the unique
aspects of the WNBA that separates it from men’s pro
leagues. “What is different is the way we are
perceived, our fan friendliness, the fact that we have a
different kind of fan that expects more, and I’m glad
to say, receives more from our athletes and their
interactions with them.” In addition, being part of an
executive team, surrounded by women for whom the concept of
a successful professional women’s basketball team has
been a lifelong dream, makes her job unique and inspiring.
“I can’t imagine having been here in the
beginning. It must have been a real thrill. People here have
a real passion for the sport, for the game, and for the idea
that this could exist professionally for women.”
She talks of the energy and excitement that the league
builds as its most rewarding part. Having seen the growing
interest in the league, noticing fans in different cities
wearing the jerseys of the visiting teams, she is constantly
encouraged by how far women’s sports and the WNBA have
come. But she cautions that female athletes should not
become complacent with the level of success that they enjoy
now. “Society still has not in large part embraced
women’s sports,” she notes. She wants female
athletes, from high school through the professional ranks,
to realize that they still have a mission to change
people’s perspectives about women’s sports, and
that they should always be thinking of ways to give back to
the cause.
Hurlbut mentions current WNBA players whom she thinks do
understand their heritage and the strides which female
athletics have taken in the past thirty years. But, as many
pioneering women begin to retire from the public light, she
cautions that there might be a time on the horizon when
girls and women have very little conception of pre-Title IX
days. New WNBA players went through an entire college career
with the knowledge that a successful pro league awaited
them, and many athletes are used to limousines and chartered
flights, inconceivable even 10 or 15 years ago. However,
she’s not discouraged by the idea that money or success
could taint the hearts and passions of female athletes,
believing that women’s sports will never face the same
big-time influences and pressures that men’s sports
do.
What’s next for Hurlbut? Right now, she’s very
comfortable in her current position, although she
wouldn’t rule out a return to college athletics. She
also mentions her ultimate fantasy: managing an 18-hole golf
course. Her schedule these days is filled with the
operations of the WNBA and the up-and-coming sports lives of
her two young children. Lest you think the competitive
nature of a pro league would cloud her vision about the
goals of youth sports, Hurlbut jokes that the number one
rule in her house is no yelling at the refs. In her role at
the WNBA, she is in charge of doling out punishments to
coaches and players that do that very thing. More
importantly, as a parent and advocate of youth sports, she
encourages participation, regardless of skill level.
“It doesn’t matter how it turns out, as long as
you like it and do the best you can. You don’t have to
be good at it, but you have to like what you’re doing,
and only do it because you like it.”
That balance between participation, effort, and results is
what has made Hurlbut successful at all of her endeavors. No
matter where she lands next, the experiences that she brings
to the table will help her conquer whatever obstacles,
challenges, and changes that she faces in the future.
--by Bevin Hartnett
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