It’s more than three hours until kickoff — the first one at the University of Memphis’ splendidly spruced-up Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium — on Sept. 5.
It is sweltering, and Kathy Sulentic is scrambling to help get ticket scanners in place before gates open. The school’s deputy athletic director for regulatory affairs and senior woman administrator is commiserating with recruits and colleagues at Tiger Walk. She is checking her chronically buzzing Apple Watch. And she is looking forward to the “105 meeting” in the officials’ locker room, which takes place 105 minutes before every game.
She walks into the Isaac Bruce Recruiting Lounge, where a team of recruiting assistants are camped out.
“Hi, ladies, do you have everything you need?” Sulentic asks
with genuine warmth.
She repeats some version of that sentiment at every turn, unfailingly ending each interaction with everyone, from interns to senior leadership, with “thank you.”
It’s all part of the reason why Memphis athletic director Ed Scott refers to her as “a unicorn.” It’s part of why football coach Charles Huff awarded Sulentic his game ball after the team’s win over UNLV on Aug. 29, a moment from a raucous postgame locker room celebration immortalized on a video that went viral.
It’s part of why she has become a fan favorite. ESPN sports personality Pat McAfee delivered a shoutout to Sulentic on the Aug. 31 episode of his show.
“Miss Kathy seems like she is a bit of a beast for the Memphis Tigers,” he said.
Sulentic, who will now forever be known as “Miss Kathy” around Memphis, can’t even go to the dentist without being recognized these days.
“In their chart, it says what you do for a living, and my dentist goes, ‘Wait, are you the Miss Kathy from the video?’ “ she says, slightly sheepish. “For whatever reason, when people see me, that’s what they call me. I don’t know what it is. People see me, and that’s what they see.”
That’s Miss Kathy. A native of Waterloo, Iowa, who grew up a Hayden Fry-era Hawkeyes fan, attended Northern Iowa when Kurt Warner was doing his thing for the Panthers, and cut her teeth in collegiate athletics at Nebraska (where, among other roles, she worked as a teacher’s assistant for Hall of Fame coach Tom Osborne). She spent 14 years in the NCAA’s compliance office before Scott convinced her to come to Memphis in November 2024.
And now, Sulentic — reluctantly, she admits, “frankly, anybody but me” — has been thrust into the spotlight, hers one of many wagons hitched to Memphis football’s fast-rising star.
The Tigers are 2-0 after beating Arkansas State 42-24 on Sept. 5. Huff and his team are in position to make another massive statement on Sept. 12, when they venture to Boise State for a game (5 p.m. CT, USA Network) with substantial College Football Playoff implications on the line.
Big picture, though, Memphis is in the midst of an ongoing push for Power Four status. It is striving to position itself for elevation when the next round of conference realignment begins.
And if the Tigers eventually make the ascension, Sulentic will be a big reason why.
What 'Miss Kathy' does for Memphis football
Sulentic is the sport administrator for Memphis football. Which essentially means she oversees the day-to-day operation of the program on behalf of Scott.
Huff calls her “the conduit” between him and the athletic department’s administration. And, he says, there hasn’t been a single fire Sulentic hasn’t been able to help him extinguish.
Let’s say a player is going through “a rough patch” — Huff calls Miss Kathy. If there are facility-related issues, he calls Miss Kathy. If he needs access to a 3D scanner because a player is having problems with his cleats, he calls Miss Kathy.
And if a storm knocks the power out on the Park Avenue campus for days in the week leading up to the season opener, Huff calls Miss Kathy.
“Like, when the electric went out, I called her as if she was like (Memphis Light, Gas and Water),” he said. “Like, ‘Why isn’t the electric back on? What are we waiting on? What did they say? Did we call again?’ “
When Huff explained his reasoning for presenting Sulentic with a game ball, he said her response every time he calls, no matter how upset he is, has been, " 'Coach, I’m on it.' "
“So, she’s a godsend. She’s got the right demeanor. She understands football. She understands a locker room environment. She understands these kids.”
How Kathy Sulentic approaches her role at Memphis
Being the sport administrator for an FBS program as a woman also means Sulentic is in some select company.
Scott, in a recent interview on “The Jason and John Show” on 92.9 ESPN, explained Sulentic is currently one of just a few women working in that role.
“She’s probably one of a handful — maybe 10 — in America that I know at the FBS level,” said Scott, who credits Sulentic with helping him land his first athletic director job at Morgan State. “That’s (out of) 138 football programs. She calls herself ‘a football princess,’ but I look at her as the most qualified person on my staff to oversee the football program.”
Sulentic, who also manages NIL and compliance matters for the entire athletic department, tries her best not to concern herself with the significance of her status, instead preferring to focus on the work.
“I feel like the best advertisement for women in sports is to just go out and do your job and kick ass,” she said. “And then, when there are women around who need a hand up, you grab it and help them up. To me, you don’t need to parade it or advertise it, you just need to just go out and kick ass and do your job and work hard.”
What's next for 'Miss Kathy's' game ball
Sulentic considers herself lucky to be at Memphis.
Having gone from Nebraska to the University of Colorado to a short stint as an attorney in Boston at one of the world’s largest law firms to the NCAA, she believes she has finally found a spot where everything she’s ever wanted to do with her life has aligned.
"I’ve only wanted three things in life. Just three. To help young people, help student-athletes and be close to a football team,” she said. “That’s all I ever wanted. I never wanted to be in the public (eye). I don’t want to be an athletic director . . .
“(But) I am unbelievably lucky to have all three of those three things here (at Memphis), and there’s nothing more in life that I could ask for.”
Well, almost. Thanks to Huff recognizing her work, Miss Kathy has something else she’s looking for now — someone to paint a panel of her game ball. She started by googling where to go for something like that, but that didn’t produce any solid leads. So she turned to Kate Roll, Huff’s director of football administration and head coach operations. Roll pointed her in the direction of Tigers equipment manager Marc Hohorst.
Sulentic isn’t sure yet what it will look like, but that’s OK.
“In Marc, I trust,” she said.
Reach sports writer Jason Munz at jason.munz@commercialappeal.com, follow him @munzly on X.
This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Meet 'Miss Kathy' Sulentic, Memphis football's reluctant godsend | Exclusive
