'We left our mark and no one can take it away from us': Texas looks back on 1986 title run

For Longhorns, title run began during 1985 NCAA Tournament

Even though Texas went undefeated that 1985-85 season, its title run arguably began with a loss the previous season: a 92-90 loss to Western Kentucky in the Sweet 16 of the 1985 NCAA Tournament. Missing out on the Final Four that was held in Austin's Erwin Center that year had set the expectations for Texas, which had six seniors. **Lloyd:** Jody (Conradt) has talked about this many times about the heartbreak of the loss that we had at Western Kentucky. I just don't think there was — unless it was somebody like Clarissa (Davis), who was a freshman — there really wasn't anybody that wasn't on the same page of that's not happening to us again. That was sort of our expectation. There wasn't even talk, "Hey, let's go win a national championship" or "That's our goal." It was sort of like, "Hell no, that is not happening again where we lose when we're supposed to win." **Harris:** It was last chance. It was like "Last Chance U." It was like, welp, last chance. I think that's the way all of us felt. We had let one get away, there was nothing we could do about that. It was literally like balls to the wall for the next year. **Priddy:** We weren't going to be denied. There was a lot of pressure on us as well. You know when you buy a new car and you're worried about that first dent? We never got that, right? We were perfect, and that put even more pressure on us,o but it did help us get to the end and succeed. **Ethridge:** I think there was such disappointment (in that Sweet 16 loss) that it fueled us. The Final Four was in Austin the year before, we were expected to be there. We all went to the Final Four as spectators and it was so depressing and I think it made a real impact on our resolve. You had a large group of seniors that were just determined to not feel that again.

Win over Houston started undefeated talk in the Texas locker room

In its history, the NCAA has had 10 undefeated champions in women's basketball. And while Texas was the first, the thought of going undefeated wasn't exactly novel. As Ethridge, currently the head coach at Washington State, pointed out, the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women had an undefeated champion as recently as Kim Mulkey's Louisiana Tech team in 1982. **MORE:** Subscribe to the Statesman's Texas sports newsletter During the 1985-86 season, Texas had only three games decided by fewer than 10 points. One of those was a 78-76 win over Ohio State in the season opener. After barely beating the Buckeyes, Texas went on a roll. Texas won its first nine games by an average of 15.7 points despite eight of those games coming against ranked opponents. The Longhorns then strolled to a Southwest Conference title. **Harris:** We didn't set (going undefeated) as a goal because, for the most part, we played during an era where there were some ballers. It wasn't a thing to think you were going to go undefeated because teams were just so good. What made us talk about it more was all the media asking us about it. We looked up and we were 19-0 (after an 87-60 win over Houston Feb. 1, 1986). I remember that mark because a journalist said that in one of the press conferences, "You guys are 19-0. How does that feel?" We hadn't really thought about it. After that, it was difficult not to keep talking about the (undefeated) season. Then there comes a point during the season where you need to go undefeated or you're going home. **Priddy:** I think we took it one game at a time, and we had to because we had some really tough games. We took it one game, one play at a time. We were supported from the athletic director down to the fans and cheerleaders. It wasn't just a team effort, it was a group effort, it was a University of Texas effort.

Longhorns were both talented, experienced and hungry during 1986 championship run

What was the key to success that season? As the team's point guard, Ethridge won a slew of national awards. Lloyd was an All-American. Davis and Harris were all-conference honorees while sophomore guard Beverly Williams was named the SWC's MVP. As a team, Texas scored 83.9 points per game. The Longhorns allowed 57.2. **Harris:** It was a combination of youth, the era that we were in where you fought together, you fought with people, you didn't have NIL, you didn't have money. I really believe as someone said to me a couple weeks ago, there's something that happens when you go to battle with people that you've been hungry with. Not just the physiological, mental hunger. Like, legit. We didn't have a lot of money. We survived together. I think that was a part of the 1985-86 team. Talented? For sure. Absolutely hungry, second five coming behind us who were killing us every day as starters. That's different. There was never any coasting because C.J. (Jones), Clarissa, Yulonda (Wimbish), those were All-American high school players. Candidly, Jody made it clear to us that if you don't get it done, somebody will take your spot. It was the perfect storm of the time when you stuck together and then the recruiting classes that Jody and her staff had put together that made us pretty formidable as a team, and then just understanding the extra pressure of this being our last opportunity as the six seniors. **Ethridge:** We had six seniors on that team that played significant minutes, that were all stars. I just don't think you ever get that anymore. In the men's game, you don't because they're one-and-done. Now in the women's game, you're getting back to that but you're not doing it how we did it, you're getting kids out of the portal. This was a team that grew up together. It had so much maturity and so much competitive excellence and such an elite mindset of what competitiveness looked like. And then you mix that in with a phenom in Clarissa and the athleticism of Beverly and Yulonda and some of the stuff that we had in the other classes.

Texas closes out perfect run with win over USC

Following a close call against Ole Miss in the Elite Eight, Texas got its revenge against Western Kentucky with a 90-65 rout in the national semifinals. That set up a showdown at Rupp Arena in Lexington, Ky., with USC, which Texas had beaten earlier this season. **This date in Texas history (3/30/1986):** Longhorns beat USC to close out perfect season Texas got a breakout game in the championship game from Davis, a freshman forward who scored 24 points while grabbing 14 rebounds. Priddy contributed 15 points to the 97-81 victory while Harris and Williams combined for 27 points and Ethridge distributed 10 assists. USC star Cheryl Miller was held to a 2-for-11 shooting performance while Cynthia Cooper led all scorers with 27 points. **Priddy:** We were sitting in the locker room and it was pretty intense. Coach asked me, "What are you thinking, Cara?" I was, like, "I'm trying to figure out what I'm going to wear to the White House." It kind of broke the intensity. We knew to play USC, it was going to be tough and it was our last game. I just felt like we were destined to win. I didn't know how we were going to do it, but I knew we were going to win it. **Lloyd:** I feel like we just wanted to beat them down. The things I sort of remember are just how motivated our bench was, and how well Cara and Clarissa played. I don't think there was ever a moment where we weren't like we were going to beat them down too. **Harris:** The other thing I remember was just how relieved we felt to be there. Did we feel pressure to go undefeated? No. But we felt pressure to be Texas and to finally be in the Final Four. We'd been No. 1 three years in a row, ranked No. 1 going into the season, Texas is supposed to be there. Hosting the Final Four, we didn't get there. There was tremendous pressure to get there and perform. I don't think we had to win, the main thing was we finally got there. Once we got there, we were very relaxed.

Forty years later, 1986 legacy looms large at Texas

During the 2026 NCAA Tournament, UT point guard Rori Harmon was asked how aware she and her teammates were of their program's history and their predecessors from 1986. "I feel like we're quite aware," she replied. "We're reminded quite a bit." **MORE:** Texas to retire No. 15 jersey of all-time leading scorer Annette Smith-Knight At Texas, the 1986 title team is still revered. After all, that's still the only championship won by either of the athletic department's basketball programs. The only three jersey numbers retired by the UT women's basketball program — Ethridge's No. 33, Davis' No. 24 and Annette Smith's No. 15 — belong to players from that title team. Eight members of that team are in the Texas Hall of Honor. **Lloyd:** There are milestones that will be forgotten. We'll pass away. We'll be a number of really talented individuals that came together to do something great if I could say, "I wish I could take and inject this into every team for every single year that Texas stays in existence," I think we were talented, but we were so competitive with each other. To me, that's something that people don't understand, is how hard our practices were, which is what translated into being so great. If there's something I could say that I wish could be our legacy, that is kind of the essence of it. **Ethridge:** I loved going to the University of Texas. They had not won a championship before, and we walked in there and did something that no other team had done that had been there or since. I loved the fact that we made Texas into a household name for women's basketball and everybody was chasing us for a time period. I love the fact that we were the first team in the NCAA's history that went undefeated. We left our mark and no one can take it away from us. We did some things that were bigger than any one individual, and we did with a sisterhood that will always be tied today.

Longhorns reflect on the standard set by coach Jody Conradt

The win over USC made a champion of the 44-year-old Conradt, who had been the Longhorns' coach since the 1976-77 season. A 1998 inductee into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, she eventually amassed a 783-245 record over her 31 seasons with Texas. But 1986 would be her only championship campaign as the Longhorns fell short during their Final Four appearances in 1987 and 2003. **Harris:** The temperament of your coach has a lot to do with how successful or not that you are. What made Jody special as our coach was that she was always adapting to what we needed. This is one thing that pops into my head. When the Jheri curl came out, Jody had us swimming. We were (training) in the Olympic swimming center. We're like, "Yo, we can't be doing all this swimming. These curls don't work that way." She didn't really understand that. It was the first time where we were like, "This is how this works. We wash this maybe once or twice a week, we have to do some heavy artillery and work on it with all these potions." She listened. The next day we came into the swim center, there were swim caps, plastic caps, Jheri curl activator along the side of the swimming pool. She had taken care of us. That was quintessential Jody. She's tough. But she listened and adapted to what each team needed. **Priddy:** She led by example. She always held herself to the highest standard, and it trickled down. The same with the assistant coaches — Lynn (Pool) and Jill (Rankin) and Colleen (Matsuhara) — and the managers, everybody was held to a high account and Jody was our shining star. Always professional, always had a little bit of wit and charm, but excellence was the only way for Jody. **Ethridge:** She was a phenomenal coach that let players play. She got the best athletes and let them run up and down the floor and dominate in the ways that they could. I just think she was ahead of her time. The way she managed us, the respect that she had within all group — the politicians that would come to out games and the superstars that would come — and how she treated everybody. She was just an unbelievable role model for all of us. We tried to reach her standards, which were extremely high. She demanded so most of us and so much from us, yet she held herself to the highest standard. I'm so grateful to have been able to have played for her. And yet at the same time, I'm sad that I think she missed more opportunities to win some championships.

Longhorns have varying definitions of the word 'perfect'

By definition, the Longhorns' 1985-86 team was perfect. Thirty-four wins. Zero losses. Forty years later, members of that team had a chance to reflect on what the word "perfect" meant to them. **Lloyd:** When I was in school, I remember people talking a lot about the pursuit of excellence. So when I think about the pursuit of excellence, it's imperfect, but we did it perfectly. There's a lot of imperfection that goes in there. It's not perfect, it's messy, the sausage-making in the pursuit of excellence, but we did it, and we perfectly pursued excellence. **Harris:** Complete. That's it. **Priddy:** Perfection is multi-layered because there's a lot of luck involved, chance, hard work, excellence, drive. All those things come together. Perfect is just the final number, the 34-0. I don't think there is such a thing as perfection, but we were perfect in that we were 34-0. **Ethridge:** In our profession and athletics, you're judged by a lot of things, but ultimately you're judged by do you win or not. And that team won and didn't take one defeat the entire year. To me, when you think of being 34-0, I can absolutely say that was perfection at the highest.