On July 2, Carol Stiff, VP Women’s Sports Programming retired after a 31-year career with ESPN. Stiff graduated from college the same year I did (1983) and coached women’s sports before joining the ESPN programming team in 1990.

Stiff applied her knowledge of and passion for women’s sports to elevate their game. She championed the WNBA and college women’s basketball, knowing they would become popular when they were visible. She is the one who facilitated the UConn-Tennessee college women’s basketball matchup, which became a huge rivalry with an audience to match.

Stiff was instrumental in special programming such as the Nine for IX series and raising awareness for the Kay Yow/WBCA Cancer Fund for the V Foundation. She supported diversity and inclusion efforts for the last 31 years, and her favorite sports memory was the 2015 Special Olympic World Summer Games Opening Ceremony.

She also opened doors for other women interested in the sports media profession. The video salute for Stiff includes just a few of those women. 

I have wondered more than a few times what alternate paths I might have followed. Stiff and I grew up during a time when women’s sports were not televised. I vaguely remember Phyillis George being crowned Miss America in 1971 and joining The NFL Today show four years later. I mostly remember the controversy her presence caused. How could a woman possibly know about football?

Even though I liked writing and sports, and even though I did the play-by-play for some of the recorded boys’ basketball games, it never even occurred to me that I could combine my interests in a profession.

I had no role models. But neither did Stiff.

Neither did Phyllis George, Gayle Gardner, Robin Roberts and the others who cleared the way for women who want to work in the male-dominated field of sports media.

They fought discrimination and had to prove the value of their contributions. At times it was a brutal path. I don’t think I could have done it, which makes me admire Stiff’s accomplishments all the more.

Read more about Carol Stiff

Executive Voice: ESPN Salutes Women’s Sports Programming VP Carol Stiff, Retiring After 31 years

Vice President, Women's Sports Programming, Carol Stiff biography