Katie George spoke to the Louisville Quarterback Club Wednesday. (Lacy Robinson Photo)
Katie George is a former Louisville high school volleyball star — she was the national player of the year her senior season — who went on to earn All-American collegiate honors playing for the hometown Cardinals (she was also the Atlantic Coast Conference player and setter of the year in 2015 as well as the scholar-athlete of the year.
George is now an on-air talent for the ACC Network/ESPN who just returned home to Louisville from the College World Series (softball).
She spoke at the Louisville Quarterback Club Wednesday, a group she also addressed in 2015 after she was crowned Miss Kentucky and was a finalist in the Miss USA contest.
After her talk, George opened the floor to questions and was asked what the perception of Louisville athletics was across the ACC considering some of the recent woes the men’s basketball and football programs have had.
George recalled winning the ACC postgraduate scholarship her senior year and asked noted TV journalist Diane Sawyer, a Kentucky native, about using the scholarship to get her Master’s rather than starting a broadcast career.
“I wanted to get a Master’s in political science in case I got offered a job in news,” George said. “My sister-in-law knows Diane Sawyer so when I talked to her, she said, ‘No. Go get on-air (TV).’ I didn’t take the scholarship.”
However, she did attend the awards banquet and remembers the feeling then about Louisville.
“We were a new member (of the ACC) and I felt there was not a lot of respect or appreciation for Louisville,” George said. “Then we had the year of the Cardinal and athletically they had to respect us.
“But given all the recent negative headlines, people in the ACC are like, ‘Come on. Get it together. It doesn’t make our conference look good.’ I know fans are fatigued. I hope we can clean things up as we move forward and get back to the year of the Cardinals and get back to athletic and academic prowess,” George said.
George started her media career after Louisville working for WDRB-TV in Louisville as a reporter/anchor before going to the Milwaukee Bucks as a sideline reporter. She went to work for the new ACC Network in 2019.
She admitted women face an “uphill battle” in a male-dominated sports industry. She shared several stories about events that made her uncomfortable at times while covering stories.
“But I am also not somebody who gets really offended by comments,” George said. “I am not going to worry about a comment that takes me off my game to where I can’t hear great content or see great things to add to the broadcast.”
