Printed September 2, 2003
Katie Hnida had been waiting eight months to redeem herself for a missed extra point against UCLA in the Sega Sports Las Vegas Bowl on Christmas day. Her chance came with 5:05 remaining in the Lobo blowout of Texas State-San Marco Saturday night.
By connecting on the extra point, and later adding another, Hnida became the first woman to ever score in a Division I college football game. Afterward, she reflected on what her accomplishment meant.
“It’s indescribable. It truly is,” she said. “I’ve been working for this for so long and gone through so much to get to this point. It’s just amazing.”
There was no excessive celebration by her teammates after the ball went cleanly through the uprights.
“We just hugged,” she said. “They said, ‘good job.’”
Head coach Rocky Long admitted after the game that he hadn’t planned on putting Hnida in.
“I wasn’t going to do it,” he said. “The rest of the players talked me into it. They kept asking me to let her kick, so finally I gave in.”
Hnida was nonetheless very grateful to her coach.
“These coaches are a big reason why this was able to happen tonight,” she said. “I really cannot stress enough how the situation here at New Mexico has been so wonderful for me.”
Editor’s note: The Daily Lobo also named Hnida its female athlete of the week.
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