ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Former Lobo football player Katie Hnida met with UNM junior and senior student-athletes on Wednesday, talking about what UNM can do for them, and how UNM helped her on her post-collegiate career. The talk was a part of the Lobo Leadership Institute, hosted by UNM’s Student-Athlete Success Center and the Lobo Club.
That post-collegiate career has included being the author of “Still Kicking”, a story of her journey to the University of New Mexico and becoming the first female to score a point in an FBS football game. She kicked a pair of extra points against Texas State in a 72-8 victory for the Lobos. Her uniform and appropriately, her kicking shoes are now on display at the College Football Hall of Fame. Hnida the previous season became the first female to play in bowl game when she saw time at kicker in the 2002 Las Vegas Bowl against UCLA.
In speaking to the juniors and seniors, Hnida relayed about how she got her start kicking as a young 13-year old kid in her backyard with her dad and brothers, to getting her start in high school football and coming to and graduating from the University of New Mexico.
Her message to the UNM student-athletes centered around surrounding themselves with people that they can trust and how being a student-athlete prepares them for their post graduate career.
After a talk of how various movie producers wanted to take her life and make a movie, but they would retain the rights to change the story to “Hollywood-ize” it, Katie told the student-athletes, “Stay with the right people, get those people around you who are going to have your back and that you trust.”
She also discussed at length, much to her chagrin, her first PAT attempt, in the 2002 Las Vegas Bowl, which was blocked. She talked of how after that missed kick, the front cover of the L.A. Times had a headline stating “Women Should Not Play Football, Katie Hnida Proves Why”, and how that moment motivated her. The lesson was that every student-athlete has a moment like that, but being a student-athlete means learning how to recover from those moments.
“You control whatever it is you can, you make that choice, and you move forward,” said Hnida, who urged the juniors and seniors to not be afraid to ask for help, and to give back to the Lobo program with their time.
The talk took a humorous twist when Hnida talked about how important it is for the student-athletes to take being a role model seriously and to constantly work to do the right thing. Hnida’s power-point showcased a photo of her signing an autograph for a young Lobo fan. That fan was sitting in the third row of the talk, as it was Lobo junior defensive lineman and two-time New Mexico Man Randy Williams. That realization was met with a lot of laughter and applause, including that of Hnida, who wondered if she would be able to get through the rest of the talk without chuckling when looking Williams’ way.
Hnida graduated Magna Cum Laude from UNM with a degree in Psychology. Her post UNM career has seen her become a highly regarded public speaker who works with many organizations that work to combat violence against women, including The Voices and Faces Project, The Joyful Heart Foundation and Counter Quo. She also has been on numerous television and news programs, including Larry King Live, The Today Show, Good Morning America, CBS This Morning and ESPN, as well as national magazines such as Sports Illustrated, Glamour, P{eople, The New York Times, USA Today and the Washington Post.
This is the fifth year of the Lobo Leadership Insititute. Previous speakers have been Paul Simson in 2009, Shane Evangelist in 2010, Hank Baskett in 2012 and Mayor Richard Berry in 2013. The Lobos for Life program hosts former student-athletes, who have achieved professional success, on campus to speak with upperclassmen on making a successful transition to the world of work.