Lynn Hickey /// Director of Athletics /// University of Texas-San Antonio (DI)

Under Hickey’s direction since 2000, UTSA has captured three conference commissioner’s cups and a pair of league all-sports trophies while consistently winning both team and individual academic and athletics awards in all 17 sports sponsored by the university.

One of Hickey’s dreams to lead UTSA to the upper echelon of Division I Athletics was realized on Nov. 11, 2010, when the university received and accepted an invitation to join the Western Athletic Conference (WAC). The department claimed the 2012-13 WAC Commissioner’s Cup on the strength of league championships by the men’s indoor track & field and baseball teams in its first and only year in the conference.

Hickey’s long-term goal of placing UTSA in a major conference was reached when Conference USA extended an invitation on May 4, 2012. The Roadrunners moved all 17 sports into that league on July 1, 2013.

Hickey has overseen the addition of three sports during her tenure. Women’s golf and women’s soccer were added in 2005 and 2006, respectively, and both programs have emerged as annual league championship contenders. On Dec. 18, 2008, UTSA’s Athletics Initiative Business Plan was approved by the UT System Board of Regents, granting permission to start a football program.

In 2007, Hickey was named to the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Committee, one of the most prestigious appointments in all of collegiate athletics. The 10-member committee oversees administration of the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship, including the selection and seeding of teams for the tournament. Hickey, whose five-year term expired in 2012, became just the second female ever selected to the committee, joining Charlotte Athletics Director Judy Rose, who served from 1999-2003.

Hickey has been honored nationally and locally for her work at UTSA. She was named the National Association of Collegiate Women Athletics Administrators 2005 Division I-AAA Administrator of the Year. Hickey earned her second national award in June 2006 as the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics/GeneralSports TURF Systems Division I-AAA West Region AD of the Year. The San Antonio Express-News tabbed her as its 2010 Sportswoman of the Year and she also was selected to and completed the Masters Leadership Program of San Antonio and Bexar County. In September 2011, she received the ATHENA Leadership from the North San Antonio Chamber of Commerce.

In serving as the fourth athletics director in UTSA history, Hickey assumed the lead athletics role at one of the youngest NCAA Division I universities in the country (UTSA began athletics competition in 1981). The only female Division I athletics director that oversees both men’s and women’s sports in the state of Texas, she served as President of the Southland from 2002-04 and as the league’s representative to the NCAA Championship/Competition Cabinet. Hickey also was a member of the Women’s Basketball Rules Committee from 2003-06, spending the last two years as chair.

Hickey came to San Antonio from Texas A&M University, where she served as senior associate athletics director/senior woman administrator from 1994-2000. At Texas A&M, her responsibilities included event management and marketing and promotions for 16 of the university’s 19 Division I sports. She also represented the Big 12 Conference as a member of the NCAA Championship Cabinet.

From 1984-94, Hickey served as head women’s basketball coach for Texas A&M. Before her stint at A&M, Hickey was head women’s basketball coach at Kansas State University from 1979-84. She was inducted into the Kansas State Athletics Hall of Fame in September 2004.