By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Foundation

While she has spent the last 30-plus years of her life pushing college athletes and coaches into the spotlight, Julie Bennett deftly avoids it whenever and however she can.

Like the San Antonio Spurs' Tim Duncan, she didn't spend the last year on her own little farewell or victory tour, even though she knew this was her last in the business. You see, it's never been about her.

"Julie has been a steady, stabilizing force on Baylor's PR team, which by nature operates primarily away from the public view," said Heath Nielsen, Baylor's Associate AD for Athletic Communications. "It's been nice the last few months to see someone who has dedicated the last 23 years of her professional life to promoting Baylor student-athletes and coaches receive a little recognition for her efforts and service."

After 23 years at Baylor and more than three decades in the sports information business, Bennett is retiring. She's stepping away from her duties as Assistant AD for Athletic Communications, which includes being the primary media contact for women's basketball, to spend time with her husband, Bruce, four daughters, 10 grandkids and four great-grandchildren.

"I'm ready," said Bennett, whose last official day is Friday. "One thing that kind of brought it to the forefront that I was doing the right thing is my 8-year-old grandson played basketball this year and I got to see one game. I don't want to miss that stuff. I have a 4-year-old below him and then we've got the two in Frisco. And I want to be able to go watch that stuff when we want."

Already the winner of numerous national publication awards through the years, Bennett added the prestigious Arch Ward Award in 2014, was honored at halftime of a Lady Bear basketball game in February and was inducted into the College Sports Information Directors of America Hall of Fame last month.

Few have or ever will do it any better than "Miss Julie." As legendary sportswriter Dave Campbell said, "No question, you are the very best."

"You have been an incredible ambassador for Baylor Athletics and the Lady Bear program over the years, setting a standard of professionalism and excellence along the way," said Nick Joos, Baylor's Executive Associate AD for External Affairs. "Thank you for everything you've done to make us better. It is deeply appreciated and will not be forgotten."

As a child of the '60s, when there were few opportunities for females in sports, Julie was a self-proclaimed "tomboy." She fell in love with baseball when her dad got her a glove, ball and bat for her sixth birthday, "and he had to go back and get him a glove because I was throwing the ball so hard he couldn't catch it."

In softball, she was always the catcher "because none of the other girls wanted to mess up their hair with the mask. And I didn't care."

She was also the San Joaquin Valley swimming champion in the butterfly. And when her school in Porterville, Calif., was starting a football team in sixth grade, the principal told Julie's mom that he was just sorry that his best player couldn't play.

"My mom asks him, 'What are you talking about?''' Julie said. "And he goes, 'Well, Julie's the best athlete we have, and we can't use her.' And some of those guys went on to be stars of our high school football team."

After graduating from Porterville High in '67, Julie took off for college, eventually earning her undergrad degree in physical education from Fresno State in 1972. By that time, she was married, Bruce had been commissioned as an officer in the Air Force and life was getting real.

With daughters Jennifer, Heather, Erin and Megan in tow, the family moved to Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri. With Central Missouri State just a short 10-mile drive away, Julie decided to go back to college and get her master's degree, with an emphasis in sports information.

"This was the late '70s, early '80s, Title IX was coming around, and I knew there would be more opportunities for women," she said. "I loved working with athletes, being around them, and I loved researching records and that kind of stuff. Plus, I was a fairly decent writer, so it was just right up my alley."

When Bruce was reassigned to March Air Force Base in Riverside, California, Julie sent out a letter to "every SID in Southern California," offering her services. She latched on part-time at Cal Poly Pomona, a Division II school about 60 miles away, for the princely sum of $100 a month.

"We had a '76 Oldsmobile station wagon, and that didn't even cover the gas," Julie said. "But I didn't have to fight the traffic because I wasn't having to go into LA. Bruce worked his schedule where he was home in the mornings and I would come home in the afternoons."

Julie's magic touch actually began at Pomona, where the Broncos won back-to-back national championships in women's basketball in 1985 and '86 and made two trips to the Women's College World Series in softball. She has added five more national championships in her time at Baylor, including women's basketball in 2005 and 2012.

While trying to get some info from Cal State San Bernardino for a soccer program, she found out the school had just started athletics and didn't even have an SID. "Have I got a deal for you," she told them.

"Starting that January, I worked it out where I would work at Pomona in the morning and use my lunch hour to drive to San Bernardino to be their SID in the afternoon," Julie said. "So, I was at Pomona for three years and San Bernardino for about a year and a half. It was really neat to establish a program from the get-go."

Julie found herself looking again when Bruce got stationed in Omaha, Neb. She got a part-time job in the SID department at Nebraska-Omaha and made some extra money as the cheerleader sponsor.

The next stop was Honolulu, where Julie again was hired as a part-timer at the University of Hawaii and initially brought in to help the school host the Division I Volleyball National Championships.

In a strange way, that move helped open a door three years later at Baylor.

As the media coordinator for the NCAA Championships, Julie got an inquiry from an intern with the Southwest Conference office that was looking for a place to stay. Which gave Julie the chance to say again, "Have I got a deal for you."

She needed someone to man the hospitality suite for the volleyball tournament, "and it's got a bedroom in there. So, you can do that for me," Julie said.

That intern was Debbie Darrah, who took a job at Texas A&M the next year and gave Julie a heads-up when Baylor had a job opening in 1993.

Bruce, who once served as an instructor at the officer training school in San Antonio, had always wanted to go back to Texas when he retired from the Air Force. And this was Julie's chance to grant his wish.

Then-Baylor SID Maxey Parrish was definitely interested, but said he didn't have the money to bring Julie down for an interview. "Have I got a deal for you."

"My second daughter, Heather, was married to someone who was stationed at Fort Hood, and she and her kids were up visiting us (in Missouri), and I was taking them home the next week," she said. "So, I told Maxey that it just so happens that I'm taking my daughter to Fort Hood, and I could stop by for an interview."

After changing into her "interview clothes" at McDonald's, she was offered the job on the spot and started at Baylor two weeks later.

"The funny thing is, when I called Maxey he said he had just come back from a meeting with (then-Athletic Director) Grant Teaff about adding a position for a woman. And then he gets the call from me," Julie said. "And then the fact that I was coming down to bring my daughter back. It was just fate, it was meant to be."

"I've often said the best thing I ever did for Baylor University was hiring Julie Bennett," Parrish said.

Originally hired as the primary media contact for volleyball and women's basketball, she added softball when it was reinstated and also handled men's and women's tennis and later Acrobatics & Tumbling. "I counted it up the other day, and I've had every sport except for men's basketball, baseball and track and field," she said, "because I was No. 2 for football for several years."

Julie was actually on the search committee when Baylor hired Sonja Hogg to take over the women's basketball program in 1994.

"Things started getting better ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢' ¬" the program, resources and stuff like that," she said. "And I think it was good that we had Sonja before Kim (Mulkey) came, because Sonja used the same drills they used at Louisiana Tech. That meant when Kim came in, these kids weren't quite as shell-shocked, because they already knew the drills and there wasn't quite as much to learn."

Eventually, as Lady Bear basketball developed into one of the nation's elite programs, Julie scaled back her duties with volleyball and softball.

"There was such a big overlap that I had to drop softball, too, because it wasn't fair to them, and basketball was getting so big," she said.

Unquestionably, one of her biggest highlights was being a part of the 2005 team that won the national championship with wins over No. 1 seeds North Carolina, LSU and Michigan State.

"I've always known what a great mind Kim was, and I remember what a dynamic player she was (at Louisiana Tech)," said Julie, who kept a Tech media guide from Mulkey's senior year when the Lady Techsters played at Pomona. "If people thought Niya Johnson had great floor awareness and court vision, it was nothing compared to Kim."

In 2012, when Mulkey brought in a class that included Johnson, Alexis Prince, Chardonae Fuqua and Kristina Higgins, Julie told Bruce that she planned to stay around long enough to see that group through to their senior year before retiring.

"I'll be 66 at that point, and that's long enough for me," she said. "Of course, Nina (Davis) goes, 'Miss Julie, why can't you just stay one more year to get me through?' I just finally said, 'Enough is enough. You're going to one-year me to death.'''

Her job has required Julie to "serve two masters. You have to kind of sit on a fence."

"I know my loyalty is with Kim and Baylor, but I still have to try to balance being able to get (the media) what they need."

And Julie is as good as it gets at that delicate balancing act.

"She goes beyond her job description," said Mulkey, who counted on her as a confidante, friend and even radio analyst when needed. "She does little things that let me know that she truly is loyal. . . . I hate to think who's going to replace her, because they have big shoes to fill."

Julie's not going away, though. She will keep fulfilling her duties for football home games and wants to do the shot chart for the stat crew at women's basketball games.

And now, Grammy will have time for the kids, time for the two acres that have been "sadly neglected for many, many years," and time to travel with Bear (Bruce).

She also plans to turn one of her bedrooms into a Baylor room with all of her memorabilia, including 19 championship rings and five pendants, "and I've already told Bruce that this room is not big enough."