March 13, 2024 • 58 mins
Kathleen Hohl built her career in public relations from the ground up, beginning as a softball student-athlete at Akron (the most successful team in school history) to her current position as Manager of Presidential Communication at Marquette. Her journey showcases how being a part of a team shaped her life personally and professionally. Throughout her career, Kathleen has seized every opportunity to learn, grow, and mentor others. She is a passionate pro who thrives under pressure but is always guaranteed to bring the lols. Self described as #JustAKidFromAkron (she went to the same high school as Lebron James), Kathleen’s authenticity and sense of humor stand out as she shares stories and advice with The Spin Chicks.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:07):
Came in the show. Hey,Erica, how are you. I'm doing
great because it's podcast day. Sowelcome to another episode of The Spin Chicks.
Yes, new Year, New you, new me. Let's do it
well. Our guest is someone thatI met early on in my career and
(00:29):
I've been waiting to kind of shareher with you, So looking forward to
talking with her today. One thingI definitely remember about her, she's very
passionate about her hometown. So kindof got me thinking, I don't know
about our hometowns because I don't knowif you knew this. Well, first
of all, I think we needto tell the listeners, where's your hometown?
Well, what do we consider ourhometown where we grew up? Yeah,
(00:51):
born, raised, high school.Because when you used to write player
bios, you'd have to put he'sa native or she's a native of and
that was where you were born.So I'm a native of Elmhurst, Illinois,
which is near Chicago. Yes itis, but I consider my hometown
Mascuita, miascou Tah, Illinois,which is near Saint Louis. Big difference.
(01:19):
Well, I had never heard ofMoscuita before I met you. I
had some friends just going to schoolin Champagne, I had some friends that
were from southern Illinois, but Ihad not heard of Moscuita. One thing
I do know about Moscuita is it'sa town of about eight thousand, which
my hometown of Oakbrook, Illinois,which is just a stone's throw from where
you were born in Elmhurst, alsohad eight thousand people. But I feel
(01:41):
like, I don't know, Ijust feel like our towns might have been
just a little different, just alittle different, just a little different.
How many stoplights did your hometown have. Oh, it's kind of a corporate
headquarters, so lots of stop lights, and we don't really have. I
was kind of thinking, do wehave any really famous people from Oakbrook?
No, we do not. Whatwe do have is a kick butt outdoor
(02:04):
shopping center. Okay, Moscuita hasthat too. It's called Main Street and
you walk down it and it's notthat I mean eight thousand people there must
be. They must have really builtthat town since I grew up there.
Now, I will tell you Moscuitais or was extremely famous for something.
(02:27):
They were the population center of theUnited States from nineteen seventy to nineteen eighty
so when you stood in Mascuita,you were standing in the very center of
the population. Interesting, very interesting. Well, I find it a little
ironic in our later years, I'mnow kind of almost relocating to a smaller
(02:51):
town where you've actually relocated to amuch bigger town in wonderful Tampa, Florida.
So kind of cool, just kindof how you just kind of just
where you start where you end up. But yeah, I loved I loved
oak Brook. I mean it wasit was it was fun. You know,
it was quaint and like I said, the mall was the big attraction.
And I think you know, they'rea lot. Where did you hang
(03:13):
out growing up? Where did youhang out? Did you have a place
that you hung out? I rodemy bike a lot, I wrote.
We oh actually related to sports,because you know, I relate a lot
of things in sports. Oak Brookis like very close. I mean it's
suburbs, so suburb of Chicago,so of course you know the usual like
you know, Bears games, allthat, White Sox Cubs games, all
(03:35):
that. We had Butler National GolfCourse and so the Western Open was played
there, so that was kind ofa huge thing. I guess that's probably
the biggest like sports thing. Wehave a reservoir. Okay, you hang
out there. I lived there,but I will tell you that the big
place that we hung out growing upnow, I grew up near an air
(03:57):
Force base, got Air Force Base, which was Military Airlift Command Headquarters AFC,
air Force Communications Whether. There werea lot of generals on that base,
and so there was a lot ofmoving in and out. I had
a new set of friends like everytwo or three years. But Mascuda quite
honestly, is a little farm town. Now it's different, a little different.
(04:18):
Now there's an airport close to therewhere you can actually fly here to
Tampa. In fact, I havefriends that have done that. But yeah,
we used to hang out at PizzaHut. That was the big jam
and they had a jukebox. God, I'm making myself sound like I'm a
thousand years old. And grew uplike like out in the Boonies. But
(04:39):
it wasn't the Boonies, but itwas a couple of blocks away from the
Boonies, So I mean, I, like I said, McDonald's headquarters was
also there. So rode my bikea lot when the weather was nice.
When it wasn't nice, I'd beup in my room just listening to music.
I always used to like record thecountdown, you know, I was
way into that. I was kindof pounddown top forty, whoever it was.
(05:01):
I just listened to a lot ofmusic. So, you know,
case we used to listen to thecountdown on the way home from church,
like it was only five minutes,and my mom would just be like,
let's have some peace and quiet beforewe get home. Because I'm sure my
mom was like, it's been quietfor an hour. I haven't heard any
fighting. And as soon as weget in the car and be like and
(05:23):
then so one time r and mymom was like, let's just turn on
the radio and have some peace andquiet for a couple of minutes. I'm
not too loud, though, canturn on the radio. When was the
last time you were in Mascuda.I was there this past August. I
went back for a a home Wehave a homecoming every year in our in
our park. You know how Illinoishas all the festivals throughout the summer,
(05:46):
not like Chicago festivals, but ourhometown that the park becomes this big.
You know, they set up ridesand stuff. I laughed because Napergatsy.
I heard him say that, youknow, you're at the state fair,
County Fair, and the rides thatwere on a highway an hour ago,
where people are now riding, youknow, like how safe is that?
But we had rides and then wehad a beer tent, like a really
(06:11):
really big, big beer tent,so I could partake in that when I
was of age. But when Iwas young, we do the rides and
I remember getting corn dogs stuff likethat, and it was just a couple
of blocks of our house, sowe can just walk over there. That
sounds very very nostalgic. Well,I'm looking forward to introducing you to Kathleen
Hole, our guest on the podcast. She is currently the manager of presidential
(06:35):
Communications at Marquette, but Marquette isactually where I met her. She's had
a few stops in between, butshe was an sid one of the first
people I met when I was anintern at the Great Midwest. Worked with
a lot of interesting coaches, tookon a lot of responsibility early, a
former student athlete, and very passionateabout her hometown, which we'll hear about.
(06:57):
So cannot wait for you to meetKathleen. I know her bio is
really amazing, and I'm really excitedto talk to her because you know,
you don't as a former women's ormen's basketball ast ID, I don't talk
to many women that were men's basketballast ID. So I'm really excited to
talk to her today. Me too, Me too. Let's do it.
Well. I feel like I shouldstart this episode with a few bars of
(07:23):
Jesse's Girl by Rick Springfield, butI don't want to. We don't want
to get dinged for copyright. Sojust pretend that you heard it in your
mind, because I did a littlepre listened to get pumped up for this.
But Kathleen, thanks for joining us. It's a great way to start
the day. It is. Itis Michelle and I. We have a
lot of we have a lot offun and so we're just happy to reconnect
(07:44):
with you. Okay, my favoritefun fact about you. You are a
proud native of Northeast Ohio Talmadge.Did I say that correctly? Like?
Yeah, absolutely, Okay. Youare a member of the Saint Vincent Saint
Mary High School Hall of Fame alongwith fellow alumnus Lebron James. Have you
(08:05):
met in person yet? We havenot, and my fun fact when I
tell people that Lebron went to thehigh school where I went, we went
to the school in different centuries.So let that soak in. I could
be his mom. And but youknow, as we call it, Saint
(08:28):
b was on the map. BeforeLebron got their proud athletic tradition, we
had, you know, some bignames who went there. Curtis Wilson played
basketball at Ohio State, Pat Bankstonbaseball at Kent State and was in the
Twins organization. Frankie Stams who playedfootball at Notre Dame and then with the
(08:52):
Rams. I don't know where theywere, maybe LA the first time in
the Cleveland Browns. So I geta little defensive. And we also had
strong girls sports history, So Iget defensive when it's like, you know,
Lebron put Saint Vincent Saint Mary onthe map. No he didn't,
So I'll just leave it at that. I would say, Kathleen put St.
(09:13):
Mary. It sounds like put SaintVincent on the map. So you
also, so you stayed in Akronright for college and went to Akron University.
YEP, I was lucky enough tobe offered scholarship akronew As we call
it, you know, it's kindof the hometown. It was a commuter
school, but they had this incredibleNortheast Ohio had this incredible pipeline of girls'
(09:39):
fast pitch softball and Akrone you benefitedfrom that. They were Division two my
first year there, which was eightyfive eighty six, we know we were
still Division two. We moved upto Division one after that, but they
were, you know, this littleschool from Akron, Ohio, Northeast Ohio.
They were Division two national runners upin eighty four and eighty five.
(10:05):
They were playing teams like cal StateNorthridge, Stephen F. Austin, you
know, warm weather schools, andit was just incredible. And they were
all homegrown girls. So it wasfor some people like going to Akron was
like Okay, you're living at homeand you're going to you know, the
local school. But for those ofus, and we had we had at
(10:28):
least four of five of us fromNortheast Ohio, that was a huge honor
to be invited to be a partof that, of that athletic program.
And we could say you're the goatof the softball program because you were the
first All American. Well that's they'rein the Hall of Fame. Yeah,
(10:48):
we didn't do a lot of Hallof famers. We've got gold medalists,
but not a lot of Hall ofFamers and goats for softball. Well,
that I would be remiss. Therewere women before me who paved the way
for my opportunity, absolutely, andbeing the product of two on high school
teachers, it was never a doubtthat academics were going to be an important
(11:11):
part and it was. I thinkall of that really led to my time
management skills. You know, Ihad a printed out calendar with our games
and when assignments were due, andI've kind of carried that into my adult
life thirty plus years later, ofyou know, of like how I manage
(11:35):
my time and how I manage mywork responsibilities. That's really cool. I
mean, I think as an athletefor you to say, because I think
a lot of athletes, Erica andI talk about this a lot of athletes,
you know, they do their resumeand they're like, I was an
athlete, Well no, you were, like you're saying you were in time
management, schedule, public relations,all that kind of stuff. Team conflict
(11:58):
or team building type of thing.And that's a good one to have on
your resume. Absolutely. Yeah,so you also worked in addition to being
just an awesome softball player, youworked in the SID office. I mean,
what would you say would be likeone of your favorite memories just from
from back then. I think ofhow much the profession and not just you
(12:18):
know, sports information but public relationshas changed. One of my responsibilities was
well too, but they involved thesame equipment. I would type play by
play at football and uh, men'sbasketball. I don't think I did it
(12:39):
for women's basketball. I don't remember, and I'm not I'm not quite sure
why, but uh, like ona on a on an electric typewriter,
and so that was pre stat crew. Oh yeah, it was. It
was totally free. Everything was manualand then probably I mean, I take
(13:00):
it with a grain of salt.It was an assignment that I felt like,
oh, they're trusting me with this. But every Monday, I would
have to type out the hometown likerelease for football, Joe Smith had four
tackles and I would have to dotheir hometown Cincinnati, Ohio. Joe Smith
(13:22):
had four tackles, and I wouldlike, it would take me all day
to do it. So I hadand it was it was a little bit
easier because in the fall we didn'treally have much of a fall season for
softball. We would practice like laterin the afternoon, so I would go
to class in the morning. Iwould trudge into the office and like,
you know, get the letterhead andand I mean I didn't mail those out
(13:48):
like to Joe Smith home somebody else. Yeah, so we had one master
release and we had all of thehometown newspapers and somebody else would would do
the labels. But I would alwayslaugh. I'm like, if you need
something trifolded, I am your person, because I can do a perfect trifold.
And then you know, I thinkin kind of a weird or maybe
(14:09):
scary way, I would be like, okay, five minutes on the clock,
how many can I fold? Andstuff? Oh my gosh, Okay.
I worked at the Big Ten conferencein the nineties where we mailed,
we copied. Yeah, I wasgreat at copiers. Although one time Jim
Delaney walked in when I was kickingthe copier and he was like, what
(14:31):
you're not You're not supposed to dothat, and I was like, oh
my god. So and then Iturned around and I realized it was him,
and I was like Oh, it'sjust so frustrating. It's broken.
So he kind of looked at itand I was like, uh, but
I was great at copies, andI'm telling you what, nobody could just
like what you're saying. You'd lookat the clock for five minutes mailing and
running things through the mailer. Whycan't we just take this to the post
(14:52):
office? But no, no,we had to put postage on every single
thing, thousands of pieces of mailon Monday. Funny the tools that we
used to use. My favorite thingI think was a T square. I
used a T square for like layouts. People are probably like, what is
a T square? But you know, I still keep it as a reminder
that thing was. Nowadays we're sittinghere on our screens like trying to get
(15:16):
through the screens and get through theright posting, you know, for social
and all that. It's just funny. Well, think about the photos for
media guides. We used to takephotos and then you know, use chalk
tape or you use tape or usea certain type of pencil to mark how
I won it a grease pencil,Yeah, mark and then put like two
A and then put it in there. And I remember when they told me
(15:37):
that we're going to start using this. I was like, that's never going
to work. You're going to useYou're gonna put all the photos on a
disc and give it to them.I don't know how that's gonna work.
Right then then they were like,oh, now you're going to put them
in there and they're going to comefrom that. Yeah. So I guess
we're dating ourselves quite a bit,aren't we. But well, when I
was in high school, I workedon our student newspaper and one of my
(16:02):
best friends from like kindergarten, II would like kind of nudge her and
she would do my layouts because Icouldn't do the math of it I and
I had no interest in learning it. So she would do the layout and
give me a word count and I'mlike, good, that's all I need
to do. So I think youlearned how to barter, Like, okay,
you're good at that. You dothat, and I'll copy out anything
(16:25):
you need. I'll write the headlines, I'll you know. That was our
trade off because I'm like, Idon't know how to lay this out,
and you know, like I'm notgoing into newspapers. So I quickly learned
that's not a skill I'll ever need, you know, Well, so how
did you get from the playing fieldat Akron then to the sports information office
(16:45):
at Marquette. So there was alittle gap in there, not a gap,
but I'm you know, originally,like when I was growing up,
I was I was super involved insports, and I knew I could talk
sports. I watched sports. Iknew I wanted to continue on and at
the time, I really only thoughtlike an athletic trainer. Well, I
(17:08):
was no good at math and science. So I'm like, well, that
that ain't gonna work. So Igot twins separated at birth. I mean,
I was like, oh, comeon, so I will never forget
this. I was reading Sports Illustratedand in one of the early columns there
there was an article about Roger valdasseriat Notre Dame and he changed the pronunciation
(17:32):
of Joe Theisman's name from Theiseman tothisman for his Heisman campaign. So I'm
reading it and said sports information director, And I said to my dad,
who really he fostered the sports pieceof it for me. I'm like,
and now when I look at it, it's like one of the most obvious
questions. I'm like, Dad,what does a sports information director do?
(17:55):
And now it's like, well,duh, that's you know, I can't
figure that out. And he goes, well, I don't know, and
he goes, but I know thesports information director at Akron. They were
in the Optimist Club together. Hegoes, I'll call him and see if
we can't meet with him. Andthat's kind of like that small town it
never would have happened, you know. So Ken MacDonald was my mentor and
(18:18):
allowed me to work and really guidedme. And then I went to grad
school at Kent, which was kindof the funny thing. And I just
I said that to one of ourmen's basketball coaches. Like Akron and Kent,
you know, they were rivals,they were rivals in everything and they're
fifteen miles apart, but they hada physical education master's degree program Ohio.
(18:42):
You was the big one that wassports administration. And I'm like, well,
I'm not going to go to Athens, Ohio now, you know,
when I'm twenty one. So Iwent and I worked with John Wagner and
Dale Gallagher at Kent. They gaveme so much responsibility and I would be
like, I'm kind of surprised they'reallowing me to, you know, to
do this, like do they know? And and I'll step back. My
(19:03):
freshman year, it was between Christmasand New Year, and I mean,
I'm still pretty young, you know. At Akron, I was the only
one in the office one day,and I was petrified. I was like,
please, don't let the phone ring, don't let anybody come in.
I don't know what to do.Oh my god. Like the whole day,
(19:26):
I was like a nervous wreck.And I remember I got home because
I lived at home with my momand dad all through and they were like,
how was work? And I'm likeI hated it. They're like why,
And I'm like I was scared todeath all day. You know.
Oh my gosh, you had alittle bit imposter syndrome. Even then,
it was totally it was frightening.So anyway, I you know, went
to Kent, got my master's degreein physical education, worked as a GA
(19:49):
there. Had had solo sports responsibilities, including my second year ice hockey,
and I'm like, I don't,I don't really I don't know this sport,
you know, Thank goodness. Onthe summer between my first and second
year of grad school, I gotmarried My husband is a huge sports fan,
(20:11):
so I would drag him with meif I had a you know,
so he was the hockey he Idon't know if he did stats or he
would call for We had radio,student radio, so he was like my
partner in crime of a lot ofthings. And then I was I was
lucky enough. I also had aninternship as a in grad school, and
(20:33):
I was lucky enough. I appliedat Marquette for the assistant sports information director
job, and they took a flyeron me, and you know, we
moved to Milwaukee in July of ninetyone. We were just married a year.
My husband's from Akron as well,and we came here and we came
to Milwaukee and we've never left.So I have to ask you about Milwaukee.
(20:56):
Have you ever been to Fourth Basethe restaurant? Is it still there?
It does not ring a bell,but I'm going to look it up
after we're done. It used tobe right near the Brewers Stadium. And
this is totally not part of ourquestions, so we we'll get right back
on track listeners. But it usedto be right near the Brewers Stadium.
I went there one time and hadlike the most amazing meal I've ever eaten,
(21:21):
and so I always think, like, if I ever get bacted Milwaukee,
I'm going to fourth base. Well, Michelle, you have an open
invite. I'd love to host youand show you, show you round,
take it to amfam Field Feisser Forum. And it's funny how sports venues have
become destinations, you know, forsure year round, it's it's not you
know, just when the Bucks orthe Brewers are playing, so it's it's
(21:45):
fun and family and friends, youknow, they want to see it.
And both facilities are so impressive.Yeah yeah, and the Brewers have a
new stadium, right they Well itwas yeah, yeah, yeah. And
it's funny when when we drove bythe you know, when they were tearing
Miller Park down. Our son,who had to be like maybe three or
(22:08):
four at the time, he sawthe demolition and he was bawling, you
know, like what what's going tohappen? And we're like, they're building
a new It's okay, you know, but that's one of our memories of
like, don't worry, it's youknow, we're not missing out on baseball.
Well, the Bradley Center's gone too, right, because I think that's
where I met you when we worktogether in the great Midwest. That was
(22:32):
kind of it is, and youknow what a lot they were like.
Uh. Part of the problem wasthat arena was built with the hope of
getting an NHL team in town,so it was really a hockey arena,
not a basketball arena. That theyhad minor league hockey, and it wasn't
(22:52):
necessarily conducive to great viewing for basketball. The funny thing was I was never
there as a fan, so Inever I mean a handful of times,
so I never experienced it that way. But when everybody was like, oh,
five Serve is going to be somuch greater, and it is an
incredible arena and facility, but Iwas like, you know what, I
(23:15):
have so many good memories from theBradley Center, and I'm I'm going to
kind of fight to not let itbe like, oh, it's a dump.
It's you know, because it wasn'tit for its time. It served
its purpose, so you know,and I have a lot of memories,
a lot of memories of sore feetfrom you know. The tough part was
there was always ice underneath, soyou would walk out and ride away,
(23:40):
your feet would just be frozen andyou know, or if not, the
hard concrete underneath. So but yeah, the the Milwaukee landscape has changed,
you know, in the thirty plusyears that we've been here. Yeah,
for sure. Are you a bigBucks fan? You know what I am?
(24:03):
When they were so in twenty one, when if my timing is right,
when they won the title what theycall the Deer District, so the
outdoor kind of landscape, if youwill, surrounding area, they had like
sixty thousand people shoehorned in there,and we had friends they are like,
do you want to go down withus? And I'm like absolutely not,
(24:26):
Like, first of all, I'mnot going to stand that long, you
know, kind of sounding spoiled andworse, maybe not safe for listening.
What if I have to go tothe bathroom, Like I'm not gonna you
know, move. It's not aman where you can just up against the
wall. And and you know,our friends after they went and they came
(24:48):
back and I'm like, how wasit, you know, because you could
see the excitement and they're like,well, we won't be going again.
And I'm like, yeah, toldto you know, so, But yeah,
I'm a Bucks fan. I willI will watch. I'm still a
Cleveland Calves fan, you know,if the Calves and still the Browns.
(25:11):
God help them on the Calves andthe Guardians. We are still partial to
those teams as well. When yougrow up and you have so many memories.
My husband and I our first officialdate was at a then Indians game,
you know, so those are stillkind of your teams. We're Ohio
(25:33):
State fans, which really goes overwhelmin the state of Wisconsin, you know.
But and it's kind of easy becausewe can cheer for Ohio State football
because at the time when we movedhere, obviously Marquete didn't have football,
so there wasn't you know, likeyou didn't feel like you were trading allegiances
or anything. So awesome. Soyou worked with some really high profile coaches,
(25:56):
work with Kevin O'Neill, Mike Dean, and Tom Crean. Now we're
going to want to know some stories, so give us some inside look.
Yeah, I've got some funny ones. My first year at Mrquet, I
was the assistant sports information director,so I did everything but men's basketball and
volleyball, women's basketball in our Olympicsports. It was kind of in that
(26:21):
in that order if you will.My boss so, and I got to
check the years. I struggle alittle bit with it. But in September
of ninety two school year had alreadystarted. My boss, the sports information
director, said he was leaving.And you guys will remember this at the
time, nobody left in the middleof the season. You know, once
(26:41):
you were in you're like, ohno, I'm stuck here, you know.
So it was like, oh what, like, what are we going
to do? And not only didnobody ever leave, but who would you
hire? So they gave me men'sbasketball with the condition it's just for this
year, we're going to do asearch at the end. And you know,
(27:03):
at the end of the season.Okay, we made it to the
NCAA tournament. And I will saythat I would not have had that opportunity
if Kevin O'Neill didn't believe in me. He was patient with me, which
some listeners may find surprising, buthe coached me. It wasn't just the
players, and he helped me learnwhat I needed to do to be successful
(27:26):
kind of in that moment in time. One of the funniest stories was too.
Actually two in ninety four, wehad a really good team and we
were in Cincinnati for Great Midwest Conferencetournament and we had some like coaches luncheon.
Eric you might remember this, butwe had to go to an outback
(27:51):
restaurant. I think they were sponsoringthe tournament. So we're driving around Cincinnati.
I'm driving a courtesy car and I'mlike, oh my, I don't
know my directions, you know,and we get lost and we connected.
We didn't, did you? Ohno? And I'm like, He's going
(28:12):
to kill me. That's all Icould think of, you know. One
of my favorite movies is A ChristmasStory when Randy says, Daddy's going to
kill Ralphie. I'm like, Kevin'sgonna kill Kathleen. Like I was just
like, I have to we haveto get there. We stopped at a
gas station and he got out andlike asked for directions. They had no
(28:34):
idea what we were even talking about. Somehow we found it and we got
there and I'm like, you know, relieved, I'm like, well,
how are we going to get back? You know? So so we did.
So we advanced to we're in theNCAA tournament. We win our first
game. We're in the the Domein Saint Pete. We're practicing and then
(29:00):
you know, there's an arena signageand there's an outback sign and Kevin looks
at me and he goes out backand I'm like, oh, yeah,
haha, like okay. And thenwe're playing Kentucky. We get a huge
lead and I'm like, we're goingto go to the Sweet sixteen. We
hadn't Marquette hadn't been there since theseventies. You know. It was just
incredible, and we were loaded.We had three great seniors, we had
(29:22):
a great junior point guard. Itwas it was magical. It really and
truly was magical. So we buildup a big lead on him and I'm
like, oh my gosh, andthey start chipping away and chipping away,
and I'm near our bench. We'reinbounding the ball from the far base line
and Kevin signals to our point guard, Tony Miller, who's also a Northeast
(29:45):
Ohio kid, for a time out. Tony waves him off, and I
see it because I'm watching, youknow, I'm watching the plane watching him
in bound, and I'm like,oh, oh, he waved him off,
And I look at Kevin, liketo see his reaction. Kevin looks
at me and he said maybe againnot safe for broadcasts. He waved me
(30:10):
off, and I'm like, we'regonna win this game. If Kevin is
talking to me on the table atthis pivotal time, like it's we're gonna
win. And we did. Andwe went to the sweet sixteen and in
that game in Knoxville, we hitthree threes to come out of the gate,
go up nine to zero on Dukeand I'm like, oh my god,
(30:32):
this is this is incredible. Theyended up winning. They had Grant
Hill who dominated, and that was, you know, the end of the
run. It was the end ofKevin's run. He went on to Tennessee.
Our three seniors graduated, and thenMike Dean came in the next year.
We went we went to the finalsof the NIT which was again,
(30:52):
you know, like incredible. Iwas seven and a half months pregnant and
I'm like, this is this isgreat, you know, but it was,
it was. It was. Itwas a time, that's for sure.
So I remember that you were like, hold on second, can you
(31:15):
hear my microphone? Yeah, okay, you need to move in a little
bit. Okay. I remember youvividly with these coaches and like you were
working at a high profile program,but the coaches you worked with, I
don't remember anyone in that role workingwith probably three such distinct, intense personalities
(31:37):
in their own way. And Ialways thought to myself, how does she
do it? Because you're right,you were, you know, pregnant with
your son the one time, andthen you were early on in the job
the first time, so you werelike a ceiling breaker. Then, I
mean, I I do remember that. So I mean, I'm just hearing
you tell the stories again. It'slike, how did how did you get
(31:57):
through all those seasons? Yeah?You know what, I really and truly
think it probably wasn't my time managementskill from being an athlete, but it
was my competitiveness and like, okay, go ahead, you know, like
kind of get it out of yoursystem. But I also was determined to
(32:17):
show that I was tough and thatyou know, maybe I would, you
know, get emotional. I thinkone of the things that at the time
was maybe disparaging to women, notmaybe it was disparaging to women. And
I know people said this about mebecause I would say it's my face,
(32:39):
like, well you're emotional, andI'm like, you're right now. I
would say, it's passion. Youknow, I have a passion to do
the very best job that I can. But so I would let my emotions
out, like when I came homeor when I was driving home, or
you know, in my office,I had great, great, great student
workers who who you know, Icould say things that I'm sure they were
(33:02):
probably like, oh, she's likeyou know, she's on the deep end,
but they were there to support me, you know. So I and
I think it was that my competitivenature where it was like, okay,
you know, you're not going toget the best to me, you know.
(33:24):
And I was always committed to doingthe very best job that I I
could. And I think, youknow, Marquette had had a female sports
information director two people before me,bet'sy Van Sickle. She she was really,
(33:44):
you know, a groundbreaker in thefield of sports information. So I
think maybe the Marquete community was wasnot fazed by having a woman in there.
I think the other thing was II would remind myself, you know,
I'm like three years old, andI didn't ever let anybody use that
(34:05):
against me. And I think thatwas again probably my my spirit of competition.
Well, I know you worked sohard, but you did have a
very fun side too. So whenI opened the show with talking about playing
that Jesse's girl from Rick Spinfield,I think one of my favorite stories about
you that you've told is I thinkit was you had to pick up one
(34:29):
of the cod like I think itwas Tom Creane. You had to pick
him up at the airport or whateverhe was coming in for his interview or
his first thing, and then Ican let you tell the rest. Oh
my god, I'm still humiliated byit. I'm like, my stomach is
just turning. So he was comingto town, he'd been hired. And
the great thing, now this isa little kind of my spirit of manipulation.
(34:53):
He was coming into town, wewere going out of town. It
was round Easter, and it wasright after the Final four. He'd been
hired. I think he went backto Michigan and then he came back to
get started by himself on no wifeand at the time they had one daughter,
Megan, and I think Joni waspregnant with Riley. I think that
(35:17):
that's the kind of the timeframe andI'm like, Okay, I'm leaving town.
I'm going to do goodwill pick himup and like show that I'm a
go getter as I'm getting out oftown. As I'm go getting out of
town, so I go to theairport and I don't think that's short term
parking. I park in the deckand you know, it's like a spring
(35:38):
day. It's a nice day.I have a CD, I have an
SUV. I can remember it.It was a white mountaineer. This is
just horrifying to think of it.You know, I have a Rick Springfield's
Greatest Hits whatever, CD, andI'm jamming. It's loud. Turn off
the car, go in and gethim. Get back in the car.
(35:59):
He's got like, you know,a carry on bag, small bag.
Get in, turn it on,and here come the two like and I
can't get to the volume button fastenough, you know, And I'm I'm
a little nervous, like I'm tryingto impress somebody who ultimately is going to
be my you know, my boss. I'm gonna work with him. And
there it is Rick Springfield's Greatest titsblaring out. And he, because he
(36:22):
and I are the same age,He's like, is that Rix Springfield?
And I'm like, oh man,now I'm just like humiliated, and I'm
like, yeah, but sure,was, and I like turned the radio
off and now, you know,harken back to driving Kevin O'Neill. I'm
like driving him. I drove himto campus and I'm like, and you
(36:43):
know, early morning, no rushhour traffic or anything. And then I'm
like, my god, I hopeI get us to campus in one piece.
You know, that would be humiliatingon top of the you know,
the radio and I'm like, oh, this is just this is just mortifying.
So yeah, that was That waskind of my formal introduction to UH
(37:04):
to Coach Crane. So does hestill sing that to you at all when
you see him? Or I don't. Yeah. The last time I saw
coach was he was in town forthe the one hundred year celebration of Marquette
basketball, So I saw him andhis family. They've added another daughter,
(37:29):
and you know, it's kind offunny. His daughter, Megan, is
my son Jordan's age. We werethe same age. So it's you know,
kind of interesting when you're the sameage and you have the same some
of the you know, you grewup in Michigan, you know, Midwest
guy. You know some of thesame like lived history, which which is
(37:51):
kind of cool. You can youcan connect with people that way. So
you were in SID and I wasa men's basketball a s ID, so
I can relate what led you toleave athletics. Yeah, it was January
of two thousand. Our son hadturned five and started school and we had
(38:17):
no family here in Milwaukee. Wehad an incredible friend base that you know,
the added is through they've become likefamily. But and he was attending
the school where my husband was theprincipal, and it just wasn't sustainable and
it was tough, but I hadI'll never forget. I was driving home
(38:40):
after you know, an event.It was late at night, and I
was struggling with it. It wasmy time management skills that I touted earlier
weren't coming through for me. Itwas tough. It was you know,
when when our son's name is Jordan, when he was in daycare at Marquette,
which was incredible perk, it waseasy, but you know, as
(39:04):
as he grew up, it wasit got harder. And I remember thinking
and and you know, thinking tomyself, you know what, there is
nobody else who can be Jordan's momand Paul's wife. Anybody can do this
SID job. And when when likeI formulated that my head. I can
(39:27):
remember my head snapping back, likeI've got to go, And it wasn't.
There was no slow transition out.I also knew that it was.
It was it's always easier to geta job when you have a job.
So I'm like, Okay, I'mnot going to quit. I've got to
find something. And I started tolook. I was really fortunate that the
(39:51):
Archdiocese of Milwaukee had a communication position. The hiring manager had worked at the
American Bowling Congress so understood like atransition from sports and knew that that there
were transferable skills and and once Igot that idea in my mind, I
was like, I can't stay.And you know, there's no kind of
(40:16):
even now, geez, twenty three, almost twenty four years later, there's
no sadness to it. You know. I desperately missed the people and missed
the people. But those were friendshipslike Erica's, you know, that that
were formed through through good and funtimes and they they last. But I
(40:40):
I didn't. I didn't miss kindof the grind, and it was it
was strange leaving in the middle ofthe season, but I think I knew
in my own heart. In mymind, if I stayed through the season,
I might not leave and and IWe're going to be really good next
(41:00):
year or blah yeah, or likethink about it in the off season,
like, well, it's not thatbad and I know that about myself.
And once I had kind of madethat determination, it was like, I've
got to make a change because I'mnot I'm I'm going to be pulled in
other directions and then I can't domy best work and my best job.
(41:22):
And not for anybody else, butfor myself. I would know that.
So after a twenty year hiatus,you're now back at Marquette twenty three year
hiatus in presidential communication. So howdid that come about? And what are
some of the things that you do? Because it's cool, you know,
I belong to a group like aftersid Life or something like that. I
(41:45):
just joined it recently. It's aFacebook group and it's hilarious that the things
people write on there fun Yes,for sure. Yeah, it's it is
funny though, because you'll read itand you'll be like, yeah, I
mean, like, how often doyou wake up in the middle of the
I even now and think, ohmy god, I was dreaming about the
stats grew not being there at halftime, and how you're like, they still
(42:07):
play the game without the stats crew. There there are people who were there
that I worked with who were stillthere when I in my first I call
it my first tour of duty.Weirdly enough, Intercollegiate Athletics was part of
(42:27):
student Affairs and one of my colleagueswas on the interview. I haven't seen
her in twenty three years, andshe's like Kathleen, and I said,
Stephanie, and you know, wereconnected, and there's a there's a good
group of folks who are you know, who are still there. It's also
incredible that there I believe there aretwenty for sure people faculty and staff who've
(42:54):
moved from Cardinal Stretch to Marquette andin faculty and staff roles, and I
think for all of us it's,you know, we found not just a
landing place, but a home.And then through various connections through the parish
and the school where my husband wasthe principal, there there are people just
(43:15):
within the Milwaukee community that we know, so that that is pretty incredible to
be able to be able to goback. And like I said, I
I'm not necessarily using my sports informationskills, you know, on a day
to day basis from the athletic world, but you know my work both at
(43:42):
Stritch and Milwaukee Area Technical College andthe archdiocese when I was reporting to in
essence, the CEO, I understandwhat our president, doctor Mike Lovell,
you know, kind of needs.It's learning his personality and his ale.
But I'm comfortable in that role.Every day is different, which is which
(44:07):
is pretty cool. I have responsibilityfor staffing him at the majority of on
campus events, so that is helpingkind of my relearning of Marquette and then
just being involved in a lot ofa lot of different things. I have
a neat it's a neat structure.I'm part of the university communication team,
(44:30):
but I'm kind of assigned or deployedto the president's office. That sounds really
cool. Yeah, And he's goingto be a president that really speaks well
about athletics when he talks about athletics. I know some presidents when they talk
about athletics at the university, you'relike, do you do you know what
you're talking about? He sounds likehe's going to be very well spoken in
(44:52):
his communications. So He's incredible.He is. What's neat about doctor Lovell
is he is He's a sports fan, and better yet, he is a
fan of our student athletes and coaches. So you know, he understands that
athletics for many people is the frontdoor to the university and it opens doors
(45:17):
for people who may or may notbe student athletes. But his knowledge of
kind of the world of higher edathletics is just incredible. So here's a
here's kind of a full circle moment, going back to a connection. Doctor
(45:38):
Lovell went to Pitt for his bachelor's, master's, and PhD. He and
I are the same age, asis Tom Green's overall in that, you
know, in that era. Hewas telling a story at a conference about
you know, sports, and heplayed when he was at Pitt as an
(45:59):
undergrad, he was in like clubsports. I think he played club volleyball,
which I'm like, wow, Idon't ever remember guys playing volleyball in
the late eighties. But he tolda story that they had student tickets and
it was at the old Pitt fieldHouse. I'm not sure what the arena
was, and he and one ofhis buddies were late to a game.
(46:22):
So when they got there, theysat on the floor, like, not
in chairs, but on the floorunder the basket. He's like, that
would never happen now, and I'mlike, and you wouldn't let it happen
now, you know, kind oflaughing about it. But as he's telling
the story, I know where it'sgoing. He was on seated on the
floor for the infamous Jerome Lane SendIt in Jerome game where he broke the
(46:47):
backboard. So Doctor Lovell's telling thestory and he goes that, like lived
with me, he got a pieceof glass from the backboard, and he
goes, but I've lost it.I don't know where it is because it
shattered right down. They were underthe backboard when it broke. So we're
leaving the the like his session ofthis conference, and we're walking back and
(47:08):
and this was still This was earlyNovember, so I'm there a month and
a half maybe, and you know, you're learning the style, you're learning
the personality. And I grabbed hiselbow and I said, you're never going
to believe this, and he goes, what And he kind of gave me
a look like oh okay, AndI said, I went to high school
(47:30):
with Jerome Lane in Akron, Ohio. And he's like what and I said,
yeah, I said, and Idid their score book. That's how
I got into you know, sports. I think he forgets like I had
a previous life in you know,in athletics. That's so cool. It
as he's telling the story, myjaw is dropping, you know, wider,
(47:52):
opening, wider and wider, andI go, I go, yeah,
I said. And the cool thingis Jerome when I was working at
Marquette the first time he signed aten day contract with the Bucks, we
had media passes. So of courseI when he gets to town and they
have a home game, I godown on the floor and he looks at
(48:13):
me. Jerome Lane does like,what are you doing here? And I
go, well, I live inMilwaukee now, and he goes, are
you kidding me? And I gono. So it was just like I'll
never forget that like the look oflike either disbelief or fear Underome's face,
you know, seeing like what isshe doing here? It was it was
(48:37):
just, you know, just incredible. So that's cool. Kind of a
small world. So so I'm alwayslike, you know, and I love
like those kind of weird one offconnections, you know, So like I
said, as doctor Love is tellingthe story, even before it started,
I'm like, he's gonna talk aboutyour own lane. I just know he's
(48:58):
going to talk about your own lane. Oh oh my, he is talking
about your roomline. Oh oh mygosh, you know, and and then
of course I have to be likethat, like, hey, you know,
wait, don't you hear this one? Because what I uh often have
to remind myself is not everybody findsit as fascinating some of the things that
I find fascinating and just you know, compelling, and like I fit that.
(49:22):
I'm serious. I really think wewere separated at birth because so much
of the same. Yes, yes, especially my husband the coolest and they're
like, oh yeah, my husband'slike but he's in tech. So I'm
sure Erica can relate to with herhusband. When they start telling work stories,
you're like, it's not as interestingas well, right, So yeah,
(49:43):
Well, well, Kathleen, canyou tell us just some advice maybe
from your perspective and just kind oflooking back at both your careers and higher
ed and media relations for sports,you know, what advice you might have
for someone going into the field theseYeah, I would say for for certainly
for athletics on building your network andmaking connections is probably one of the most
(50:13):
important things that you can do.Everybody can write. And really the job
has changed so much, you know, I like to say it's changed so
much they gave it a new name, you know, that it's Athletics Communications,
and I'm like, yeah, you'rethe s I D you know,
like now no one's gonna call andask you, like shoes should I get
(50:35):
this kind of shoe, this runningshoe? And You're like, what are
you talking about? Like we aresports information, it's stratcom or I've seen
a bunch of different, you know, interesting titles now. But also to
it encompasses a lot more probably justwith social media and marketing, you know,
all of that. Yeah, Likeit is an inherently different job than
(50:59):
you know, when I was init. But I would say the piece
that hasn't changed is the networking andthe connections. And sometimes it's it's difficult
to put yourself out there and andit may feel if people even use this
word anymore, like forward, youknow, but I think with the growth
(51:24):
of social media networks and platforms,people have connections that we never could have
dreamed about you know, when wewere getting started, when we were printing
out our resumes and mailing them,you know, and and decide, well,
right, and what what color paperstock should I use? Should I
(51:46):
use this? Like cream? Whatabout a gray? Like? Oh my
gosh, you know that's you know, but I think the other piece and
and I would say it's not certainlynot limited to athletics, certainly not limited
to public relations or communications, andmaybe it goes across all jobs. Is
(52:06):
that be true to yourself and don'tever do a job for somebody else that
it's it's you that you have tosatisfy, because you're always going to be
(52:28):
with yourself, and you're always goingto know or remember and that person who
you're trying to please or cater toor maybe panned or two. You're going
to be an afterthought in a youknow, in a heartbeat. And there
there are things that I look backand I'm like, I would never do
that again, you know. Andthen there are times where I'm like,
I did the right thing, youknow, if I stood up for myself
(52:51):
or spoke out when maybe you know, I got some kind of quizzical looks.
Because I think if you let youknow, let your moral compass guide
you. You're not going to gotoo far wrong. And but if you
let somebody else's dreams or vision influenceyou too much, then you've lost You've
(53:15):
lost what's special about you. That'spretty compelling advice. Well, before we
end our chat today, we've gota fun little segment that we call the
spin cycle. Uh ooh, it'sfun though, it's really fun. We're
just going to ask a couple ofquestions and just tell us your first response.
(53:40):
Kind of go from there. Allright, Okay, you ready,
I'm ready? Coffee or tea?Coffee? Emails are meetings? I would
say meetings right, morning person ornot? I would say morning person,
(54:06):
hotel or Airbnb? Hotel? Yousound like my husband? There was no
pause there. All right? Andthe last one, what's for dinner?
Oh hmm, tonight I'm flying solobecause there's a marquet game that my husband's
working. But on most nights,I would say something homemade, And if
(54:35):
I had to have a preference,it would be my husband's meat loaf.
Every time I'm like, god,you make a great meat loaf, and
he's like, it's it's just reallymushing up a bunch of stuff, and
I'm like, I know, butit's so good, so simple, simple
pleasures. I guess. Thanks somuch for being on. I was so
(54:58):
looking forward to introducing to Michelle becauseI think you guys, I knew you'd
have a lot in common, andI think just talking and everything, I
totally I believe that. And youknow, Kathleen, I know we met
early on, but still you were. Your sense of humor and just what
you were doing at the time wasalways, you know, very inspirational to
me. And so I've just lovedhaving you join us today for a little
(55:21):
catch up. And everything that you'redoing sounds wonderful. I appreciate it.
It's always fun to go down memorylane with friends and you know, recall
things that maybe you haven't thought offor a while and then get a good
laugh about it, like oh mygosh. And I admire both of you
for the work that you're doing andyour passion project. It's it's fun to
(55:45):
watch and exciting to see what guestsyou have on. We've got some good
ones. We've had some good ones, and I love listening to your stories.
I mean really really, really cool, so they're fun. Thank you.
It truly was a pleasure Erica.I loved Kathleen would. I knew
(56:07):
you would. You guys have alot a lot in common, even more
so now when we were going throughit, and I was thinking of just
a lot of the different experiences youhad, especially you know, working in
a field that quite frankly was therewere not a lot of women, a
lot of visory or you've ceiling breakers, do you? Yeah, I mean
definitely she. I mean, shewas in sid Way before me for men.
(56:30):
But she Wow, she's got sucha cool story of how she left
and now she's back at Marquette.And I love the story about the president
telling, you know, the storyabout the guy dunking, and that she
was at that game and knew thatguy. I mean, wow, that
was That kind of tells you like, she's in the right place so well.
And there was a lot of historywith the coaches she worked with that
(56:51):
particular time in college basketball, andagain, she had a lot of responsibility.
She was very strong, and therewere times where you know, she
did show vulnerability because it was adifficult job at times, but she was
always true to herself. And Ithink that's the one takeaway that I got.
I mean, she was that's Kathleen, and she's the same today she
(57:12):
was then, and I was justso exciting to catch up with her.
I mean, I know we didn'tget to everything. She's a gramma now
and I know that's kind of abig part of her life, but she's
just continuing to make a difference.So yeah, she was so interesting and
I really did feel like we weretwins separated at birth at times. Things
that she was saying. I mean, Midwest people interested in sports, Midwest
women interested in sports, worked ina career in sports, left sports.
(57:37):
It's just it was really interesting.Yep, yep. Well, another another
fantastic episode, and if you enjoyedit, please like, follow, share.
I mean, we are always lookingto increase our following. Right,
leave us a couple comments if youliked it. Anyone you want us to
interview. I mean, we havea whole long list, but we're open.
(57:58):
I'd love to hear some comments.We'd love to see some comments.
That one from your son. Weprobably need more comments than that one.
Oh no, we just outed him. Yeah, I think we have one
comment, So we'd really like toget that bumped down a little bit.
It's funny, but it's been upthere while Sonny, yes, and yes,
she is going through a midlife crisis. So no, no, I'm
(58:19):
just one of the thousands, millionsof people who started a podcast. So
that's right now. So follow,love like comments on The spin Chicks and
thank you for listening. Thank youfor listening.
Came in the show. Hey,Erica, how are you. I'm doing
great because it's podcast day. Sowelcome to another episode of The Spin Chicks.
Yes, new Year, New you, new me. Let's do it
well. Our guest is someone thatI met early on in my career and
(00:29):
I've been waiting to kind of shareher with you, So looking forward to
talking with her today. One thingI definitely remember about her, she's very
passionate about her hometown. So kindof got me thinking, I don't know
about our hometowns because I don't knowif you knew this. Well, first
of all, I think we needto tell the listeners, where's your hometown?
Well, what do we consider ourhometown where we grew up? Yeah,
(00:51):
born, raised, high school.Because when you used to write player
bios, you'd have to put he'sa native or she's a native of and
that was where you were born.So I'm a native of Elmhurst, Illinois,
which is near Chicago. Yes itis, but I consider my hometown
Mascuita, miascou Tah, Illinois,which is near Saint Louis. Big difference.
(01:19):
Well, I had never heard ofMoscuita before I met you. I
had some friends just going to schoolin Champagne, I had some friends that
were from southern Illinois, but Ihad not heard of Moscuita. One thing
I do know about Moscuita is it'sa town of about eight thousand, which
my hometown of Oakbrook, Illinois,which is just a stone's throw from where
you were born in Elmhurst, alsohad eight thousand people. But I feel
(01:41):
like, I don't know, Ijust feel like our towns might have been
just a little different, just alittle different, just a little different.
How many stoplights did your hometown have. Oh, it's kind of a corporate
headquarters, so lots of stop lights, and we don't really have. I
was kind of thinking, do wehave any really famous people from Oakbrook?
No, we do not. Whatwe do have is a kick butt outdoor
(02:04):
shopping center. Okay, Moscuita hasthat too. It's called Main Street and
you walk down it and it's notthat I mean eight thousand people there must
be. They must have really builtthat town since I grew up there.
Now, I will tell you Moscuitais or was extremely famous for something.
(02:27):
They were the population center of theUnited States from nineteen seventy to nineteen eighty
so when you stood in Mascuita,you were standing in the very center of
the population. Interesting, very interesting. Well, I find it a little
ironic in our later years, I'mnow kind of almost relocating to a smaller
(02:51):
town where you've actually relocated to amuch bigger town in wonderful Tampa, Florida.
So kind of cool, just kindof how you just kind of just
where you start where you end up. But yeah, I loved I loved
oak Brook. I mean it wasit was it was fun. You know,
it was quaint and like I said, the mall was the big attraction.
And I think you know, they'rea lot. Where did you hang
(03:13):
out growing up? Where did youhang out? Did you have a place
that you hung out? I rodemy bike a lot, I wrote.
We oh actually related to sports,because you know, I relate a lot
of things in sports. Oak Brookis like very close. I mean it's
suburbs, so suburb of Chicago,so of course you know the usual like
you know, Bears games, allthat, White Sox Cubs games, all
(03:35):
that. We had Butler National GolfCourse and so the Western Open was played
there, so that was kind ofa huge thing. I guess that's probably
the biggest like sports thing. Wehave a reservoir. Okay, you hang
out there. I lived there,but I will tell you that the big
place that we hung out growing upnow, I grew up near an air
(03:57):
Force base, got Air Force Base, which was Military Airlift Command Headquarters AFC,
air Force Communications Whether. There werea lot of generals on that base,
and so there was a lot ofmoving in and out. I had
a new set of friends like everytwo or three years. But Mascuda quite
honestly, is a little farm town. Now it's different, a little different.
(04:18):
Now there's an airport close to therewhere you can actually fly here to
Tampa. In fact, I havefriends that have done that. But yeah,
we used to hang out at PizzaHut. That was the big jam
and they had a jukebox. God, I'm making myself sound like I'm a
thousand years old. And grew uplike like out in the Boonies. But
(04:39):
it wasn't the Boonies, but itwas a couple of blocks away from the
Boonies, So I mean, I, like I said, McDonald's headquarters was
also there. So rode my bikea lot when the weather was nice.
When it wasn't nice, I'd beup in my room just listening to music.
I always used to like record thecountdown, you know, I was
way into that. I was kindof pounddown top forty, whoever it was.
(05:01):
I just listened to a lot ofmusic. So, you know,
case we used to listen to thecountdown on the way home from church,
like it was only five minutes,and my mom would just be like,
let's have some peace and quiet beforewe get home. Because I'm sure my
mom was like, it's been quietfor an hour. I haven't heard any
fighting. And as soon as weget in the car and be like and
(05:23):
then so one time r and mymom was like, let's just turn on
the radio and have some peace andquiet for a couple of minutes. I'm
not too loud, though, canturn on the radio. When was the
last time you were in Mascuda.I was there this past August. I
went back for a a home Wehave a homecoming every year in our in
our park. You know how Illinoishas all the festivals throughout the summer,
(05:46):
not like Chicago festivals, but ourhometown that the park becomes this big.
You know, they set up ridesand stuff. I laughed because Napergatsy.
I heard him say that, youknow, you're at the state fair,
County Fair, and the rides thatwere on a highway an hour ago,
where people are now riding, youknow, like how safe is that?
But we had rides and then wehad a beer tent, like a really
(06:11):
really big, big beer tent,so I could partake in that when I
was of age. But when Iwas young, we do the rides and
I remember getting corn dogs stuff likethat, and it was just a couple
of blocks of our house, sowe can just walk over there. That
sounds very very nostalgic. Well,I'm looking forward to introducing you to Kathleen
Hole, our guest on the podcast. She is currently the manager of presidential
(06:35):
Communications at Marquette, but Marquette isactually where I met her. She's had
a few stops in between, butshe was an sid one of the first
people I met when I was anintern at the Great Midwest. Worked with
a lot of interesting coaches, tookon a lot of responsibility early, a
former student athlete, and very passionateabout her hometown, which we'll hear about.
(06:57):
So cannot wait for you to meetKathleen. I know her bio is
really amazing, and I'm really excitedto talk to her because you know,
you don't as a former women's ormen's basketball ast ID, I don't talk
to many women that were men's basketballast ID. So I'm really excited to
talk to her today. Me too, Me too. Let's do it.
Well. I feel like I shouldstart this episode with a few bars of
(07:23):
Jesse's Girl by Rick Springfield, butI don't want to. We don't want
to get dinged for copyright. Sojust pretend that you heard it in your
mind, because I did a littlepre listened to get pumped up for this.
But Kathleen, thanks for joining us. It's a great way to start
the day. It is. Itis Michelle and I. We have a
lot of we have a lot offun and so we're just happy to reconnect
(07:44):
with you. Okay, my favoritefun fact about you. You are a
proud native of Northeast Ohio Talmadge.Did I say that correctly? Like?
Yeah, absolutely, Okay. Youare a member of the Saint Vincent Saint
Mary High School Hall of Fame alongwith fellow alumnus Lebron James. Have you
(08:05):
met in person yet? We havenot, and my fun fact when I
tell people that Lebron went to thehigh school where I went, we went
to the school in different centuries.So let that soak in. I could
be his mom. And but youknow, as we call it, Saint
(08:28):
b was on the map. BeforeLebron got their proud athletic tradition, we
had, you know, some bignames who went there. Curtis Wilson played
basketball at Ohio State, Pat Bankstonbaseball at Kent State and was in the
Twins organization. Frankie Stams who playedfootball at Notre Dame and then with the
(08:52):
Rams. I don't know where theywere, maybe LA the first time in
the Cleveland Browns. So I geta little defensive. And we also had
strong girls sports history, So Iget defensive when it's like, you know,
Lebron put Saint Vincent Saint Mary onthe map. No he didn't,
So I'll just leave it at that. I would say, Kathleen put St.
(09:13):
Mary. It sounds like put SaintVincent on the map. So you
also, so you stayed in Akronright for college and went to Akron University.
YEP, I was lucky enough tobe offered scholarship akronew As we call
it, you know, it's kindof the hometown. It was a commuter
school, but they had this incredibleNortheast Ohio had this incredible pipeline of girls'
(09:39):
fast pitch softball and Akrone you benefitedfrom that. They were Division two my
first year there, which was eightyfive eighty six, we know we were
still Division two. We moved upto Division one after that, but they
were, you know, this littleschool from Akron, Ohio, Northeast Ohio.
They were Division two national runners upin eighty four and eighty five.
(10:05):
They were playing teams like cal StateNorthridge, Stephen F. Austin, you
know, warm weather schools, andit was just incredible. And they were
all homegrown girls. So it wasfor some people like going to Akron was
like Okay, you're living at homeand you're going to you know, the
local school. But for those ofus, and we had we had at
(10:28):
least four of five of us fromNortheast Ohio, that was a huge honor
to be invited to be a partof that, of that athletic program.
And we could say you're the goatof the softball program because you were the
first All American. Well that's they'rein the Hall of Fame. Yeah,
(10:48):
we didn't do a lot of Hallof famers. We've got gold medalists,
but not a lot of Hall ofFamers and goats for softball. Well,
that I would be remiss. Therewere women before me who paved the way
for my opportunity, absolutely, andbeing the product of two on high school
teachers, it was never a doubtthat academics were going to be an important
(11:11):
part and it was. I thinkall of that really led to my time
management skills. You know, Ihad a printed out calendar with our games
and when assignments were due, andI've kind of carried that into my adult
life thirty plus years later, ofyou know, of like how I manage
(11:35):
my time and how I manage mywork responsibilities. That's really cool. I
mean, I think as an athletefor you to say, because I think
a lot of athletes, Erica andI talk about this a lot of athletes,
you know, they do their resumeand they're like, I was an
athlete, Well no, you were, like you're saying you were in time
management, schedule, public relations,all that kind of stuff. Team conflict
(11:58):
or team building type of thing.And that's a good one to have on
your resume. Absolutely. Yeah,so you also worked in addition to being
just an awesome softball player, youworked in the SID office. I mean,
what would you say would be likeone of your favorite memories just from
from back then. I think ofhow much the profession and not just you
(12:18):
know, sports information but public relationshas changed. One of my responsibilities was
well too, but they involved thesame equipment. I would type play by
play at football and uh, men'sbasketball. I don't think I did it
(12:39):
for women's basketball. I don't remember, and I'm not I'm not quite sure
why, but uh, like ona on a on an electric typewriter,
and so that was pre stat crew. Oh yeah, it was. It
was totally free. Everything was manualand then probably I mean, I take
(13:00):
it with a grain of salt.It was an assignment that I felt like,
oh, they're trusting me with this. But every Monday, I would
have to type out the hometown likerelease for football, Joe Smith had four
tackles and I would have to dotheir hometown Cincinnati, Ohio. Joe Smith
(13:22):
had four tackles, and I wouldlike, it would take me all day
to do it. So I hadand it was it was a little bit
easier because in the fall we didn'treally have much of a fall season for
softball. We would practice like laterin the afternoon, so I would go
to class in the morning. Iwould trudge into the office and like,
you know, get the letterhead andand I mean I didn't mail those out
(13:48):
like to Joe Smith home somebody else. Yeah, so we had one master
release and we had all of thehometown newspapers and somebody else would would do
the labels. But I would alwayslaugh. I'm like, if you need
something trifolded, I am your person, because I can do a perfect trifold.
And then you know, I thinkin kind of a weird or maybe
(14:09):
scary way, I would be like, okay, five minutes on the clock,
how many can I fold? Andstuff? Oh my gosh, Okay.
I worked at the Big Ten conferencein the nineties where we mailed,
we copied. Yeah, I wasgreat at copiers. Although one time Jim
Delaney walked in when I was kickingthe copier and he was like, what
(14:31):
you're not You're not supposed to dothat, and I was like, oh
my god. So and then Iturned around and I realized it was him,
and I was like Oh, it'sjust so frustrating. It's broken.
So he kind of looked at itand I was like, uh, but
I was great at copies, andI'm telling you what, nobody could just
like what you're saying. You'd lookat the clock for five minutes mailing and
running things through the mailer. Whycan't we just take this to the post
(14:52):
office? But no, no,we had to put postage on every single
thing, thousands of pieces of mailon Monday. Funny the tools that we
used to use. My favorite thingI think was a T square. I
used a T square for like layouts. People are probably like, what is
a T square? But you know, I still keep it as a reminder
that thing was. Nowadays we're sittinghere on our screens like trying to get
(15:16):
through the screens and get through theright posting, you know, for social
and all that. It's just funny. Well, think about the photos for
media guides. We used to takephotos and then you know, use chalk
tape or you use tape or usea certain type of pencil to mark how
I won it a grease pencil,Yeah, mark and then put like two
A and then put it in there. And I remember when they told me
(15:37):
that we're going to start using this. I was like, that's never going
to work. You're going to useYou're gonna put all the photos on a
disc and give it to them.I don't know how that's gonna work.
Right then then they were like,oh, now you're going to put them
in there and they're going to comefrom that. Yeah. So I guess
we're dating ourselves quite a bit,aren't we. But well, when I
was in high school, I workedon our student newspaper and one of my
(16:02):
best friends from like kindergarten, II would like kind of nudge her and
she would do my layouts because Icouldn't do the math of it I and
I had no interest in learning it. So she would do the layout and
give me a word count and I'mlike, good, that's all I need
to do. So I think youlearned how to barter, Like, okay,
you're good at that. You dothat, and I'll copy out anything
(16:25):
you need. I'll write the headlines, I'll you know. That was our
trade off because I'm like, Idon't know how to lay this out,
and you know, like I'm notgoing into newspapers. So I quickly learned
that's not a skill I'll ever need, you know, Well, so how
did you get from the playing fieldat Akron then to the sports information office
(16:45):
at Marquette. So there was alittle gap in there, not a gap,
but I'm you know, originally,like when I was growing up,
I was I was super involved insports, and I knew I could talk
sports. I watched sports. Iknew I wanted to continue on and at
the time, I really only thoughtlike an athletic trainer. Well, I
(17:08):
was no good at math and science. So I'm like, well, that
that ain't gonna work. So Igot twins separated at birth. I mean,
I was like, oh, comeon, so I will never forget
this. I was reading Sports Illustratedand in one of the early columns there
there was an article about Roger valdasseriat Notre Dame and he changed the pronunciation
(17:32):
of Joe Theisman's name from Theiseman tothisman for his Heisman campaign. So I'm
reading it and said sports information director, And I said to my dad,
who really he fostered the sports pieceof it for me. I'm like,
and now when I look at it, it's like one of the most obvious
questions. I'm like, Dad,what does a sports information director do?
(17:55):
And now it's like, well,duh, that's you know, I can't
figure that out. And he goes, well, I don't know, and
he goes, but I know thesports information director at Akron. They were
in the Optimist Club together. Hegoes, I'll call him and see if
we can't meet with him. Andthat's kind of like that small town it
never would have happened, you know. So Ken MacDonald was my mentor and
(18:18):
allowed me to work and really guidedme. And then I went to grad
school at Kent, which was kindof the funny thing. And I just
I said that to one of ourmen's basketball coaches. Like Akron and Kent,
you know, they were rivals,they were rivals in everything and they're
fifteen miles apart, but they hada physical education master's degree program Ohio.
(18:42):
You was the big one that wassports administration. And I'm like, well,
I'm not going to go to Athens, Ohio now, you know,
when I'm twenty one. So Iwent and I worked with John Wagner and
Dale Gallagher at Kent. They gaveme so much responsibility and I would be
like, I'm kind of surprised they'reallowing me to, you know, to
do this, like do they know? And and I'll step back. My
(19:03):
freshman year, it was between Christmasand New Year, and I mean,
I'm still pretty young, you know. At Akron, I was the only
one in the office one day,and I was petrified. I was like,
please, don't let the phone ring, don't let anybody come in.
I don't know what to do.Oh my god. Like the whole day,
(19:26):
I was like a nervous wreck.And I remember I got home because
I lived at home with my momand dad all through and they were like,
how was work? And I'm likeI hated it. They're like why,
And I'm like I was scared todeath all day. You know.
Oh my gosh, you had alittle bit imposter syndrome. Even then,
it was totally it was frightening.So anyway, I you know, went
to Kent, got my master's degreein physical education, worked as a GA
(19:49):
there. Had had solo sports responsibilities, including my second year ice hockey,
and I'm like, I don't,I don't really I don't know this sport,
you know, Thank goodness. Onthe summer between my first and second
year of grad school, I gotmarried My husband is a huge sports fan,
(20:11):
so I would drag him with meif I had a you know,
so he was the hockey he Idon't know if he did stats or he
would call for We had radio,student radio, so he was like my
partner in crime of a lot ofthings. And then I was I was
lucky enough. I also had aninternship as a in grad school, and
(20:33):
I was lucky enough. I appliedat Marquette for the assistant sports information director
job, and they took a flyeron me, and you know, we
moved to Milwaukee in July of ninetyone. We were just married a year.
My husband's from Akron as well,and we came here and we came
to Milwaukee and we've never left.So I have to ask you about Milwaukee.
(20:56):
Have you ever been to Fourth Basethe restaurant? Is it still there?
It does not ring a bell,but I'm going to look it up
after we're done. It used tobe right near the Brewers Stadium. And
this is totally not part of ourquestions, so we we'll get right back
on track listeners. But it usedto be right near the Brewers Stadium.
I went there one time and hadlike the most amazing meal I've ever eaten,
(21:21):
and so I always think, like, if I ever get bacted Milwaukee,
I'm going to fourth base. Well, Michelle, you have an open
invite. I'd love to host youand show you, show you round,
take it to amfam Field Feisser Forum. And it's funny how sports venues have
become destinations, you know, forsure year round, it's it's not you
know, just when the Bucks orthe Brewers are playing, so it's it's
(21:45):
fun and family and friends, youknow, they want to see it.
And both facilities are so impressive.Yeah yeah, and the Brewers have a
new stadium, right they Well itwas yeah, yeah, yeah. And
it's funny when when we drove bythe you know, when they were tearing
Miller Park down. Our son,who had to be like maybe three or
(22:08):
four at the time, he sawthe demolition and he was bawling, you
know, like what what's going tohappen? And we're like, they're building
a new It's okay, you know, but that's one of our memories of
like, don't worry, it's youknow, we're not missing out on baseball.
Well, the Bradley Center's gone too, right, because I think that's
where I met you when we worktogether in the great Midwest. That was
(22:32):
kind of it is, and youknow what a lot they were like.
Uh. Part of the problem wasthat arena was built with the hope of
getting an NHL team in town,so it was really a hockey arena,
not a basketball arena. That theyhad minor league hockey, and it wasn't
(22:52):
necessarily conducive to great viewing for basketball. The funny thing was I was never
there as a fan, so Inever I mean a handful of times,
so I never experienced it that way. But when everybody was like, oh,
five Serve is going to be somuch greater, and it is an
incredible arena and facility, but Iwas like, you know what, I
(23:15):
have so many good memories from theBradley Center, and I'm I'm going to
kind of fight to not let itbe like, oh, it's a dump.
It's you know, because it wasn'tit for its time. It served
its purpose, so you know,and I have a lot of memories,
a lot of memories of sore feetfrom you know. The tough part was
there was always ice underneath, soyou would walk out and ride away,
(23:40):
your feet would just be frozen andyou know, or if not, the
hard concrete underneath. So but yeah, the the Milwaukee landscape has changed,
you know, in the thirty plusyears that we've been here. Yeah,
for sure. Are you a bigBucks fan? You know what I am?
(24:03):
When they were so in twenty one, when if my timing is right,
when they won the title what theycall the Deer District, so the
outdoor kind of landscape, if youwill, surrounding area, they had like
sixty thousand people shoehorned in there,and we had friends they are like,
do you want to go down withus? And I'm like absolutely not,
(24:26):
Like, first of all, I'mnot going to stand that long, you
know, kind of sounding spoiled andworse, maybe not safe for listening.
What if I have to go tothe bathroom, Like I'm not gonna you
know, move. It's not aman where you can just up against the
wall. And and you know,our friends after they went and they came
(24:48):
back and I'm like, how wasit, you know, because you could
see the excitement and they're like,well, we won't be going again.
And I'm like, yeah, toldto you know, so, But yeah,
I'm a Bucks fan. I willI will watch. I'm still a
Cleveland Calves fan, you know,if the Calves and still the Browns.
(25:11):
God help them on the Calves andthe Guardians. We are still partial to
those teams as well. When yougrow up and you have so many memories.
My husband and I our first officialdate was at a then Indians game,
you know, so those are stillkind of your teams. We're Ohio
(25:33):
State fans, which really goes overwhelmin the state of Wisconsin, you know.
But and it's kind of easy becausewe can cheer for Ohio State football
because at the time when we movedhere, obviously Marquete didn't have football,
so there wasn't you know, likeyou didn't feel like you were trading allegiances
or anything. So awesome. Soyou worked with some really high profile coaches,
(25:56):
work with Kevin O'Neill, Mike Dean, and Tom Crean. Now we're
going to want to know some stories, so give us some inside look.
Yeah, I've got some funny ones. My first year at Mrquet, I
was the assistant sports information director,so I did everything but men's basketball and
volleyball, women's basketball in our Olympicsports. It was kind of in that
(26:21):
in that order if you will.My boss so, and I got to
check the years. I struggle alittle bit with it. But in September
of ninety two school year had alreadystarted. My boss, the sports information
director, said he was leaving.And you guys will remember this at the
time, nobody left in the middleof the season. You know, once
(26:41):
you were in you're like, ohno, I'm stuck here, you know.
So it was like, oh what, like, what are we going
to do? And not only didnobody ever leave, but who would you
hire? So they gave me men'sbasketball with the condition it's just for this
year, we're going to do asearch at the end. And you know,
(27:03):
at the end of the season.Okay, we made it to the
NCAA tournament. And I will saythat I would not have had that opportunity
if Kevin O'Neill didn't believe in me. He was patient with me, which
some listeners may find surprising, buthe coached me. It wasn't just the
players, and he helped me learnwhat I needed to do to be successful
(27:26):
kind of in that moment in time. One of the funniest stories was too.
Actually two in ninety four, wehad a really good team and we
were in Cincinnati for Great Midwest Conferencetournament and we had some like coaches luncheon.
Eric you might remember this, butwe had to go to an outback
(27:51):
restaurant. I think they were sponsoringthe tournament. So we're driving around Cincinnati.
I'm driving a courtesy car and I'mlike, oh my, I don't
know my directions, you know,and we get lost and we connected.
We didn't, did you? Ohno? And I'm like, He's going
(28:12):
to kill me. That's all Icould think of, you know. One
of my favorite movies is A ChristmasStory when Randy says, Daddy's going to
kill Ralphie. I'm like, Kevin'sgonna kill Kathleen. Like I was just
like, I have to we haveto get there. We stopped at a
gas station and he got out andlike asked for directions. They had no
(28:34):
idea what we were even talking about. Somehow we found it and we got
there and I'm like, you know, relieved, I'm like, well,
how are we going to get back? You know? So so we did.
So we advanced to we're in theNCAA tournament. We win our first
game. We're in the the Domein Saint Pete. We're practicing and then
(29:00):
you know, there's an arena signageand there's an outback sign and Kevin looks
at me and he goes out backand I'm like, oh, yeah,
haha, like okay. And thenwe're playing Kentucky. We get a huge
lead and I'm like, we're goingto go to the Sweet sixteen. We
hadn't Marquette hadn't been there since theseventies. You know. It was just
incredible, and we were loaded.We had three great seniors, we had
(29:22):
a great junior point guard. Itwas it was magical. It really and
truly was magical. So we buildup a big lead on him and I'm
like, oh my gosh, andthey start chipping away and chipping away,
and I'm near our bench. We'reinbounding the ball from the far base line
and Kevin signals to our point guard, Tony Miller, who's also a Northeast
(29:45):
Ohio kid, for a time out. Tony waves him off, and I
see it because I'm watching, youknow, I'm watching the plane watching him
in bound, and I'm like,oh, oh, he waved him off,
And I look at Kevin, liketo see his reaction. Kevin looks
at me and he said maybe againnot safe for broadcasts. He waved me
(30:10):
off, and I'm like, we'regonna win this game. If Kevin is
talking to me on the table atthis pivotal time, like it's we're gonna
win. And we did. Andwe went to the sweet sixteen and in
that game in Knoxville, we hitthree threes to come out of the gate,
go up nine to zero on Dukeand I'm like, oh my god,
(30:32):
this is this is incredible. Theyended up winning. They had Grant
Hill who dominated, and that was, you know, the end of the
run. It was the end ofKevin's run. He went on to Tennessee.
Our three seniors graduated, and thenMike Dean came in the next year.
We went we went to the finalsof the NIT which was again,
(30:52):
you know, like incredible. Iwas seven and a half months pregnant and
I'm like, this is this isgreat, you know, but it was,
it was. It was. Itwas a time, that's for sure.
So I remember that you were like, hold on second, can you
(31:15):
hear my microphone? Yeah, okay, you need to move in a little
bit. Okay. I remember youvividly with these coaches and like you were
working at a high profile program,but the coaches you worked with, I
don't remember anyone in that role workingwith probably three such distinct, intense personalities
(31:37):
in their own way. And Ialways thought to myself, how does she
do it? Because you're right,you were, you know, pregnant with
your son the one time, andthen you were early on in the job
the first time, so you werelike a ceiling breaker. Then, I
mean, I I do remember that. So I mean, I'm just hearing
you tell the stories again. It'slike, how did how did you get
(31:57):
through all those seasons? Yeah?You know what, I really and truly
think it probably wasn't my time managementskill from being an athlete, but it
was my competitiveness and like, okay, go ahead, you know, like
kind of get it out of yoursystem. But I also was determined to
(32:17):
show that I was tough and thatyou know, maybe I would, you
know, get emotional. I thinkone of the things that at the time
was maybe disparaging to women, notmaybe it was disparaging to women. And
I know people said this about mebecause I would say it's my face,
(32:39):
like, well you're emotional, andI'm like, you're right now. I
would say, it's passion. Youknow, I have a passion to do
the very best job that I can. But so I would let my emotions
out, like when I came homeor when I was driving home, or
you know, in my office,I had great, great, great student
workers who who you know, Icould say things that I'm sure they were
(33:02):
probably like, oh, she's likeyou know, she's on the deep end,
but they were there to support me, you know. So I and
I think it was that my competitivenature where it was like, okay,
you know, you're not going toget the best to me, you know.
(33:24):
And I was always committed to doingthe very best job that I I
could. And I think, youknow, Marquette had had a female sports
information director two people before me,bet'sy Van Sickle. She she was really,
(33:44):
you know, a groundbreaker in thefield of sports information. So I
think maybe the Marquete community was wasnot fazed by having a woman in there.
I think the other thing was II would remind myself, you know,
I'm like three years old, andI didn't ever let anybody use that
(34:05):
against me. And I think thatwas again probably my my spirit of competition.
Well, I know you worked sohard, but you did have a
very fun side too. So whenI opened the show with talking about playing
that Jesse's girl from Rick Spinfield,I think one of my favorite stories about
you that you've told is I thinkit was you had to pick up one
(34:29):
of the cod like I think itwas Tom Creane. You had to pick
him up at the airport or whateverhe was coming in for his interview or
his first thing, and then Ican let you tell the rest. Oh
my god, I'm still humiliated byit. I'm like, my stomach is
just turning. So he was comingto town, he'd been hired. And
the great thing, now this isa little kind of my spirit of manipulation.
(34:53):
He was coming into town, wewere going out of town. It
was round Easter, and it wasright after the Final four. He'd been
hired. I think he went backto Michigan and then he came back to
get started by himself on no wifeand at the time they had one daughter,
Megan, and I think Joni waspregnant with Riley. I think that
(35:17):
that's the kind of the timeframe andI'm like, Okay, I'm leaving town.
I'm going to do goodwill pick himup and like show that I'm a
go getter as I'm getting out oftown. As I'm go getting out of
town, so I go to theairport and I don't think that's short term
parking. I park in the deckand you know, it's like a spring
(35:38):
day. It's a nice day.I have a CD, I have an
SUV. I can remember it.It was a white mountaineer. This is
just horrifying to think of it.You know, I have a Rick Springfield's
Greatest Hits whatever, CD, andI'm jamming. It's loud. Turn off
the car, go in and gethim. Get back in the car.
(35:59):
He's got like, you know,a carry on bag, small bag.
Get in, turn it on,and here come the two like and I
can't get to the volume button fastenough, you know, And I'm I'm
a little nervous, like I'm tryingto impress somebody who ultimately is going to
be my you know, my boss. I'm gonna work with him. And
there it is Rick Springfield's Greatest titsblaring out. And he, because he
(36:22):
and I are the same age,He's like, is that Rix Springfield?
And I'm like, oh man,now I'm just like humiliated, and I'm
like, yeah, but sure,was, and I like turned the radio
off and now, you know,harken back to driving Kevin O'Neill. I'm
like driving him. I drove himto campus and I'm like, and you
(36:43):
know, early morning, no rushhour traffic or anything. And then I'm
like, my god, I hopeI get us to campus in one piece.
You know, that would be humiliatingon top of the you know,
the radio and I'm like, oh, this is just this is just mortifying.
So yeah, that was That waskind of my formal introduction to UH
(37:04):
to Coach Crane. So does hestill sing that to you at all when
you see him? Or I don't. Yeah. The last time I saw
coach was he was in town forthe the one hundred year celebration of Marquette
basketball, So I saw him andhis family. They've added another daughter,
(37:29):
and you know, it's kind offunny. His daughter, Megan, is
my son Jordan's age. We werethe same age. So it's you know,
kind of interesting when you're the sameage and you have the same some
of the you know, you grewup in Michigan, you know, Midwest
guy. You know some of thesame like lived history, which which is
(37:51):
kind of cool. You can youcan connect with people that way. So
you were in SID and I wasa men's basketball a s ID, so
I can relate what led you toleave athletics. Yeah, it was January
of two thousand. Our son hadturned five and started school and we had
(38:17):
no family here in Milwaukee. Wehad an incredible friend base that you know,
the added is through they've become likefamily. But and he was attending
the school where my husband was theprincipal, and it just wasn't sustainable and
it was tough, but I hadI'll never forget. I was driving home
(38:40):
after you know, an event.It was late at night, and I
was struggling with it. It wasmy time management skills that I touted earlier
weren't coming through for me. Itwas tough. It was you know,
when when our son's name is Jordan, when he was in daycare at Marquette,
which was incredible perk, it waseasy, but you know, as
(39:04):
as he grew up, it wasit got harder. And I remember thinking
and and you know, thinking tomyself, you know what, there is
nobody else who can be Jordan's momand Paul's wife. Anybody can do this
SID job. And when when likeI formulated that my head. I can
(39:27):
remember my head snapping back, likeI've got to go, And it wasn't.
There was no slow transition out.I also knew that it was.
It was it's always easier to geta job when you have a job.
So I'm like, Okay, I'mnot going to quit. I've got to
find something. And I started tolook. I was really fortunate that the
(39:51):
Archdiocese of Milwaukee had a communication position. The hiring manager had worked at the
American Bowling Congress so understood like atransition from sports and knew that that there
were transferable skills and and once Igot that idea in my mind, I
was like, I can't stay.And you know, there's no kind of
(40:16):
even now, geez, twenty three, almost twenty four years later, there's
no sadness to it. You know. I desperately missed the people and missed
the people. But those were friendshipslike Erica's, you know, that that
were formed through through good and funtimes and they they last. But I
(40:40):
I didn't. I didn't miss kindof the grind, and it was it
was strange leaving in the middle ofthe season, but I think I knew
in my own heart. In mymind, if I stayed through the season,
I might not leave and and IWe're going to be really good next
(41:00):
year or blah yeah, or likethink about it in the off season,
like, well, it's not thatbad and I know that about myself.
And once I had kind of madethat determination, it was like, I've
got to make a change because I'mnot I'm I'm going to be pulled in
other directions and then I can't domy best work and my best job.
(41:22):
And not for anybody else, butfor myself. I would know that.
So after a twenty year hiatus,you're now back at Marquette twenty three year
hiatus in presidential communication. So howdid that come about? And what are
some of the things that you do? Because it's cool, you know,
I belong to a group like aftersid Life or something like that. I
(41:45):
just joined it recently. It's aFacebook group and it's hilarious that the things
people write on there fun Yes,for sure. Yeah, it's it is
funny though, because you'll read itand you'll be like, yeah, I
mean, like, how often doyou wake up in the middle of the
I even now and think, ohmy god, I was dreaming about the
stats grew not being there at halftime, and how you're like, they still
(42:07):
play the game without the stats crew. There there are people who were there
that I worked with who were stillthere when I in my first I call
it my first tour of duty.Weirdly enough, Intercollegiate Athletics was part of
(42:27):
student Affairs and one of my colleagueswas on the interview. I haven't seen
her in twenty three years, andshe's like Kathleen, and I said,
Stephanie, and you know, wereconnected, and there's a there's a good
group of folks who are you know, who are still there. It's also
incredible that there I believe there aretwenty for sure people faculty and staff who've
(42:54):
moved from Cardinal Stretch to Marquette andin faculty and staff roles, and I
think for all of us it's,you know, we found not just a
landing place, but a home.And then through various connections through the parish
and the school where my husband wasthe principal, there there are people just
(43:15):
within the Milwaukee community that we know, so that that is pretty incredible to
be able to be able to goback. And like I said, I
I'm not necessarily using my sports informationskills, you know, on a day
to day basis from the athletic world, but you know my work both at
(43:42):
Stritch and Milwaukee Area Technical College andthe archdiocese when I was reporting to in
essence, the CEO, I understandwhat our president, doctor Mike Lovell,
you know, kind of needs.It's learning his personality and his ale.
But I'm comfortable in that role.Every day is different, which is which
(44:07):
is pretty cool. I have responsibilityfor staffing him at the majority of on
campus events, so that is helpingkind of my relearning of Marquette and then
just being involved in a lot ofa lot of different things. I have
a neat it's a neat structure.I'm part of the university communication team,
(44:30):
but I'm kind of assigned or deployedto the president's office. That sounds really
cool. Yeah, And he's goingto be a president that really speaks well
about athletics when he talks about athletics. I know some presidents when they talk
about athletics at the university, you'relike, do you do you know what
you're talking about? He sounds likehe's going to be very well spoken in
(44:52):
his communications. So He's incredible.He is. What's neat about doctor Lovell
is he is He's a sports fan, and better yet, he is a
fan of our student athletes and coaches. So you know, he understands that
athletics for many people is the frontdoor to the university and it opens doors
(45:17):
for people who may or may notbe student athletes. But his knowledge of
kind of the world of higher edathletics is just incredible. So here's a
here's kind of a full circle moment, going back to a connection. Doctor
(45:38):
Lovell went to Pitt for his bachelor's, master's, and PhD. He and
I are the same age, asis Tom Green's overall in that, you
know, in that era. Hewas telling a story at a conference about
you know, sports, and heplayed when he was at Pitt as an
(45:59):
undergrad, he was in like clubsports. I think he played club volleyball,
which I'm like, wow, Idon't ever remember guys playing volleyball in
the late eighties. But he tolda story that they had student tickets and
it was at the old Pitt fieldHouse. I'm not sure what the arena
was, and he and one ofhis buddies were late to a game.
(46:22):
So when they got there, theysat on the floor, like, not
in chairs, but on the floorunder the basket. He's like, that
would never happen now, and I'mlike, and you wouldn't let it happen
now, you know, kind oflaughing about it. But as he's telling
the story, I know where it'sgoing. He was on seated on the
floor for the infamous Jerome Lane SendIt in Jerome game where he broke the
(46:47):
backboard. So Doctor Lovell's telling thestory and he goes that, like lived
with me, he got a pieceof glass from the backboard, and he
goes, but I've lost it.I don't know where it is because it
shattered right down. They were underthe backboard when it broke. So we're
leaving the the like his session ofthis conference, and we're walking back and
(47:08):
and this was still This was earlyNovember, so I'm there a month and
a half maybe, and you know, you're learning the style, you're learning
the personality. And I grabbed hiselbow and I said, you're never going
to believe this, and he goes, what And he kind of gave me
a look like oh okay, AndI said, I went to high school
(47:30):
with Jerome Lane in Akron, Ohio. And he's like what and I said,
yeah, I said, and Idid their score book. That's how
I got into you know, sports. I think he forgets like I had
a previous life in you know,in athletics. That's so cool. It
as he's telling the story, myjaw is dropping, you know, wider,
(47:52):
opening, wider and wider, andI go, I go, yeah,
I said. And the cool thingis Jerome when I was working at
Marquette the first time he signed aten day contract with the Bucks, we
had media passes. So of courseI when he gets to town and they
have a home game, I godown on the floor and he looks at
(48:13):
me. Jerome Lane does like,what are you doing here? And I
go, well, I live inMilwaukee now, and he goes, are
you kidding me? And I gono. So it was just like I'll
never forget that like the look oflike either disbelief or fear Underome's face,
you know, seeing like what isshe doing here? It was it was
(48:37):
just, you know, just incredible. So that's cool. Kind of a
small world. So so I'm alwayslike, you know, and I love
like those kind of weird one offconnections, you know, So like I
said, as doctor Love is tellingthe story, even before it started,
I'm like, he's gonna talk aboutyour own lane. I just know he's
(48:58):
going to talk about your own lane. Oh oh my, he is talking
about your roomline. Oh oh mygosh, you know, and and then
of course I have to be likethat, like, hey, you know,
wait, don't you hear this one? Because what I uh often have
to remind myself is not everybody findsit as fascinating some of the things that
I find fascinating and just you know, compelling, and like I fit that.
(49:22):
I'm serious. I really think wewere separated at birth because so much
of the same. Yes, yes, especially my husband the coolest and they're
like, oh yeah, my husband'slike but he's in tech. So I'm
sure Erica can relate to with herhusband. When they start telling work stories,
you're like, it's not as interestingas well, right, So yeah,
(49:43):
Well, well, Kathleen, canyou tell us just some advice maybe
from your perspective and just kind oflooking back at both your careers and higher
ed and media relations for sports,you know, what advice you might have
for someone going into the field theseYeah, I would say for for certainly
for athletics on building your network andmaking connections is probably one of the most
(50:13):
important things that you can do.Everybody can write. And really the job
has changed so much, you know, I like to say it's changed so
much they gave it a new name, you know, that it's Athletics Communications,
and I'm like, yeah, you'rethe s I D you know,
like now no one's gonna call andask you, like shoes should I get
(50:35):
this kind of shoe, this runningshoe? And You're like, what are
you talking about? Like we aresports information, it's stratcom or I've seen
a bunch of different, you know, interesting titles now. But also to
it encompasses a lot more probably justwith social media and marketing, you know,
all of that. Yeah, Likeit is an inherently different job than
(50:59):
you know, when I was init. But I would say the piece
that hasn't changed is the networking andthe connections. And sometimes it's it's difficult
to put yourself out there and andit may feel if people even use this
word anymore, like forward, youknow, but I think with the growth
(51:24):
of social media networks and platforms,people have connections that we never could have
dreamed about you know, when wewere getting started, when we were printing
out our resumes and mailing them,you know, and and decide, well,
right, and what what color paperstock should I use? Should I
(51:46):
use this? Like cream? Whatabout a gray? Like? Oh my
gosh, you know that's you know, but I think the other piece and
and I would say it's not certainlynot limited to athletics, certainly not limited
to public relations or communications, andmaybe it goes across all jobs. Is
(52:06):
that be true to yourself and don'tever do a job for somebody else that
it's it's you that you have tosatisfy, because you're always going to be
(52:28):
with yourself, and you're always goingto know or remember and that person who
you're trying to please or cater toor maybe panned or two. You're going
to be an afterthought in a youknow, in a heartbeat. And there
there are things that I look backand I'm like, I would never do
that again, you know. Andthen there are times where I'm like,
I did the right thing, youknow, if I stood up for myself
(52:51):
or spoke out when maybe you know, I got some kind of quizzical looks.
Because I think if you let youknow, let your moral compass guide
you. You're not going to gotoo far wrong. And but if you
let somebody else's dreams or vision influenceyou too much, then you've lost You've
(53:15):
lost what's special about you. That'spretty compelling advice. Well, before we
end our chat today, we've gota fun little segment that we call the
spin cycle. Uh ooh, it'sfun though, it's really fun. We're
just going to ask a couple ofquestions and just tell us your first response.
(53:40):
Kind of go from there. Allright, Okay, you ready,
I'm ready? Coffee or tea?Coffee? Emails are meetings? I would
say meetings right, morning person ornot? I would say morning person,
(54:06):
hotel or Airbnb? Hotel? Yousound like my husband? There was no
pause there. All right? Andthe last one, what's for dinner?
Oh hmm, tonight I'm flying solobecause there's a marquet game that my husband's
working. But on most nights,I would say something homemade, And if
(54:35):
I had to have a preference,it would be my husband's meat loaf.
Every time I'm like, god,you make a great meat loaf, and
he's like, it's it's just reallymushing up a bunch of stuff, and
I'm like, I know, butit's so good, so simple, simple
pleasures. I guess. Thanks somuch for being on. I was so
(54:58):
looking forward to introducing to Michelle becauseI think you guys, I knew you'd
have a lot in common, andI think just talking and everything, I
totally I believe that. And youknow, Kathleen, I know we met
early on, but still you were. Your sense of humor and just what
you were doing at the time wasalways, you know, very inspirational to
me. And so I've just lovedhaving you join us today for a little
(55:21):
catch up. And everything that you'redoing sounds wonderful. I appreciate it.
It's always fun to go down memorylane with friends and you know, recall
things that maybe you haven't thought offor a while and then get a good
laugh about it, like oh mygosh. And I admire both of you
for the work that you're doing andyour passion project. It's it's fun to
(55:45):
watch and exciting to see what guestsyou have on. We've got some good
ones. We've had some good ones, and I love listening to your stories.
I mean really really, really cool, so they're fun. Thank you.
It truly was a pleasure Erica.I loved Kathleen would. I knew
(56:07):
you would. You guys have alot a lot in common, even more
so now when we were going throughit, and I was thinking of just
a lot of the different experiences youhad, especially you know, working in
a field that quite frankly was therewere not a lot of women, a
lot of visory or you've ceiling breakers, do you? Yeah, I mean
definitely she. I mean, shewas in sid Way before me for men.
(56:30):
But she Wow, she's got sucha cool story of how she left
and now she's back at Marquette.And I love the story about the president
telling, you know, the storyabout the guy dunking, and that she
was at that game and knew thatguy. I mean, wow, that
was That kind of tells you like, she's in the right place so well.
And there was a lot of historywith the coaches she worked with that
(56:51):
particular time in college basketball, andagain, she had a lot of responsibility.
She was very strong, and therewere times where you know, she
did show vulnerability because it was adifficult job at times, but she was
always true to herself. And Ithink that's the one takeaway that I got.
I mean, she was that's Kathleen, and she's the same today she
(57:12):
was then, and I was justso exciting to catch up with her.
I mean, I know we didn'tget to everything. She's a gramma now
and I know that's kind of abig part of her life, but she's
just continuing to make a difference.So yeah, she was so interesting and
I really did feel like we weretwins separated at birth at times. Things
that she was saying. I mean, Midwest people interested in sports, Midwest
women interested in sports, worked ina career in sports, left sports.
(57:37):
It's just it was really interesting.Yep, yep. Well, another another
fantastic episode, and if you enjoyedit, please like, follow, share.
I mean, we are always lookingto increase our following. Right,
leave us a couple comments if youliked it. Anyone you want us to
interview. I mean, we havea whole long list, but we're open.
(57:58):
I'd love to hear some comments.We'd love to see some comments.
That one from your son. Weprobably need more comments than that one.
Oh no, we just outed him. Yeah, I think we have one
comment, So we'd really like toget that bumped down a little bit.
It's funny, but it's been upthere while Sonny, yes, and yes,
she is going through a midlife crisis. So no, no, I'm
(58:19):
just one of the thousands, millionsof people who started a podcast. So
that's right now. So follow,love like comments on The spin Chicks and
thank you for listening. Thank youfor listening.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist
It’s 1996 in rural North Carolina, and an oddball crew makes history when they pull off America’s third largest cash heist. But it’s all downhill from there. Join host Johnny Knoxville as he unspools a wild and woolly tale about a group of regular ‘ol folks who risked it all for a chance at a better life. CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist answers the question: what would you do with 17.3 million dollars? The answer includes diamond rings, mansions, velvet Elvis paintings, plus a run for the border, murder-for-hire-plots, and FBI busts.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com