Trey Gowdy goes one-on-one with women's basketball legend Kim Mulkey

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Trey Gowdy talks to hall of fame women's basketball coach Kim Mulkey

Legendary coach talks to Gowdy about leaving longtime role at Baylor University for new challenge at LSU and more.

Fox News' Trey Gowdy recently spoke to legendary women's college basketball coach Kim Mulkey about her new challenge at Louisiana State University after 20 years at Baylor University in a wide-ranging interview on "The Trey Gowdy Podcast."

TREY GOWDY: "What is the job of an A.D. (athletic director) versus the coach?"

KIM MULKEY: "Well, first of all, I have never worked for an A.D. that tried to interfere and tell you how to run your program. If you're asking me my idea of an athletic director – and I can only speak for myself – their role is to give you the resources and give you the support and get out of the way and let you do your job.

Now, if you're a coach that, you know, stays in trouble, or a coach that has NCAA following you every step of the way or a coach that, you know, is constantly in trouble or something, yeah, then your A.D. needs to be in the way, needs to be there every day. But I was just fortunate to work for a lot of A.D.'s that valued women's basketball.

And Trey, let me say what I mean about value. There is no financial gain across the NCAA spectrum of women's sports where you say, "Oh, they make money." It's just not there. The money, the cash cow – cows are college football and then the NCAA tournament March Madness for the men. Those are the cash cows. Anybody will tell you that. Not even Connecticut, Tennessee, Louisiana Tech – none of those schools just bring in the big bucks. And yet I always tell people, if you start with women's basketball and that is front and center of your female sports, you can't put a dollar value on that because of television.

The number of students who will attend your school and pay out of their pocket because they love to see a team on TV all the time, there is no way to just pinpoint a dollar value. So I just tend to think that value is more than just saying, oh, they make this much money. Nobody does that in women's sports. But you feel it, you know it.

And then when you look in the stands, the community, how you interact as a college women's basketball coach in the community, they don't just come because you're winning. Yes, that's a big part of it, but you have to have them attending before you start winning. I'm seeing it now at LSU, and I did this at Baylor. I'm front and center in this community. I have spoken to so many Rotaries and columnists and been out there at kids' ballgames. You just have to be center. They got to feel you. They got to touch you. They got to know who you are, and we'll do the same thing at LSU.

I mean, we're going to sell 5,000 season tickets this year. We're right there. That doesn't happen because all of a sudden we hire Kim Mulkey, and we're now nationally known. It happens because we work at it, and I make myself very visible.

GOWDY: Well, I've only been in two environments. The Dome has done a really good job of getting people to come to South Carolina basketball games, and when I went to watch – it was only twice – But when I went to watch, it wasn't like we were playing UConn or Tennessee. I think we were playing Kansas or Kansas State, but the place is packed. When you were at Baylor and then when I watched it on television, it looked like the fans traveled to support you and your players in the program. Also, if you were on the road, it looked like they traveled.

MULKEY: Well, they did. And this morning I'm on the phone with people that are coming to the Sugar Bowl to see Baylor football, and guess what they want this morning? They want a seat at my game. We play A&M on the second. That's what you develop, it's that you develop friends for life, and you develop these die-hard women's basketball fans. 

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Trey Gowdy currently hosts FOX News Channel’s (FNC) Sunday Night in America with Trey Gowdy (Sundays, 7PM/ET) and The Trey Gowdy Podcast on FOX News Audio. Mr. Gowdy joined the network as a contributor in January 2019.