Head coach Karen Aston announced the hiring of UT Women’s Athletics Hall of Honor inductee Fran Harris as a special assistant to the Women’s Basketball program on Tuesday.
Harris returns to the Forty Acres as an accomplished businesswoman, writer, and broadcast personality with more than 20 years of experience in the sales, sports media, and sports marketing industries.
The Dallas, Texas, native was a student-athlete for Hall of Fame coach Jody Conradt from 1982-86 during the most successful era of women’s basketball at The University of Texas. Harris was named Southwest Conference Player of the Year in 1984-85 and was team MVP of the historic 1985-86 squad, which became the first women’s college basketball team to go undefeated (34-0) and win the NCAA title.
Harris’ 1,798 career points at Texas currently ranks seventh in program history.
After graduating with a communications degree from UT, Harris played professional basketball in over 30 countries while based with teams in Italy and Switzerland. In between seasons of her professional playing career, Harris served as a graduate assistant on Conradt’s coaching staff during the 1988-99 season and attained a master of arts in journalism from The University of Texas in 1991.
She played three seasons in the WNBA with the Houston Comets (1997-98), including the inaugural WNBA champion team in 1997, and the Utah Starzz (1999).
Harris’ many accomplishments in the business industry include over 15 years of experience as a corporate trainer and speaker, former account executive at Procter & Gamble (1991-95), 10 years of live broadcast experience with the ESPN family of networks (1994-2001; 2011-present), host of HGTV’s ‘Home Rules’ (2010), ‘advice guru’ for ABC’s ‘Good Morning America’ (2010-11), and adjunct professor of advertising at The University of Texas at Austin (2011-13).
In 2007, Harris was inducted to the UT Athletics Women’s Hall of Honor.
Karen Aston statement on the hiring of Fran Harris: I am incredibly proud to bring Fran Harris back to our Texas Basketball program. Everyone knows the championship tradition Fran established during her time as a student-athlete here on the Forty Acres. Her passion and enthusiasm for Texas Women’s Basketball has always permeated through her speech, and to have that characteristic as a full-time asset is very exciting.
As a Texas Ex, Fran adds a presence on our staff that has proved to be invaluable for connecting our past to our future. Her knowledge and experience in the areas of marketing and player development enable us to act above the curve in providing an extra source of growth, not only for our program, but also for the sport of women’s basketball.
Fran Harris statement on returning to UT: It’s an exciting time to be a Longhorn and I’m thrilled to be joining Karen’s staff. I have enjoyed getting to know Karen over the last two years. Not only do we share an excitement and passion for Texas Women’s Basketball, but also a genuine commitment to doing our part to return the program to national prominence in all areas.
I’ll leverage my 25 years of consulting experience in sales, communications and media to focus on marketing, brand evangelism, training, and player development. I feel very fortunate to have the opportunity to give back to a program that has given me so much, on and off the court.
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