Kim Mulkey

Kim Mulkey was born in Santa Ana, California, and was raised in Tickfaw, Louisiana. She played Dixie Youth baseball at age 12, competed for two years in Pony League baseball, and made an all-star team twice.

At Hammond High School, Mulkey led the basketball team to four consecutive state championships. She posted a 136-5 record, scored 4,075 points, earned all-district, all-state, and All-America honors in each of her four seasons, and graduated as valedictorian with a 4.0 grade-point average.

Mulkey played point guard for Louisiana Tech from 1980 to 1984, helping the Lady Techsters win the AIAW national championship in 1981 and the inaugural NCAA women's championship in 1982. Her college teams went 130-6 and reached four Final Fours.

A two-time Academic All-American who graduated summa cum laude with a business degree, Mulkey received the Frances Pomeroy Naismith Award in 1984. The award recognized the nation's top college senior under 5 feet 6 inches. She later entered the CoSIDA Academic All-America Hall of Fame in 2003.

Mulkey represented the United States at the 1983 Pan American Games in Caracas, where the team won the gold medal after going 5-0. She also played at the 1983 World Championship, where the United States won the silver medal.

At the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, Mulkey was part of the United States team that won the gold medal. She also played for the gold-medal-winning American team at the 1984 Jones Cup.

Mulkey began coaching at Louisiana Tech in 1985 as an assistant under Leon Barmore. She became associate head coach in 1996 and remained with the program through 2000. During her 15 seasons as an assistant and associate head coach, Louisiana Tech went 430-68, reached seven Final Fours, and won the 1988 NCAA championship.

Mulkey became Baylor's head coach in 2000 after the Lady Bears had finished the previous season 7-20 and last in the Big 12. She led Baylor to its first NCAA tournament appearance in her first season and built the program into a national power. Baylor won NCAA championships in 2005, 2012, and 2019, reached four Final Fours, and won 23 Big 12 regular-season and tournament titles during her tenure.

The 2012 Baylor team finished 40-0, the first perfect season in NCAA women's basketball history. Baylor's 2019 championship gave the program its third national title, while the 2005 title was the first national championship won by a women's sport at the university. Mulkey coached Brittney Griner, Odyssey Sims, and other award-winning players during her time at Baylor.

Mulkey left Baylor for LSU in 2021. In her second season, she led LSU to its first women's basketball national championship, as the Tigers finished 34-2 and defeated Iowa 102-85 in the title game. The championship game set a record for points scored in an NCAA women's basketball championship game and drew 9.9 million viewers across ABC and ESPN networks.

Mulkey was the fastest Division I coach to reach 600 victories, doing so in 700 games. She was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2000 and the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as part of the 2020 class.

Mulkey married Randy Robertson in 1987 after meeting him at Louisiana Tech, where he had been a starting quarterback for the Bulldogs. They had two children, Kramer and Makenzie, and divorced in 2006. During the marriage, she was known as Kim Mulkey-Robertson.

Mulkey is known for the vivid outfits she wears while coaching games. She has said her style is inspired by Louisiana, and she often wears clothing by Queen of Sparkles. Jennifer Roberts, LSU's director of player personnel and influence, has assisted with her styling.

In 2013, Brittney Griner said that Mulkey had advised Baylor athletes to remain quiet about their sexual orientation because being openly gay could affect the program's reputation and recruiting. Griner also said Mulkey had asked her to cover tattoos and remove social-media posts about her girlfriend, while acknowledging that Mulkey defended her from bullying. Several former Baylor players defended Mulkey.

Mulkey drew criticism in 2021 after calling for COVID-19 testing to be stopped during the NCAA tournament. In 2024, she threatened to sue The Washington Post over an article she called a hit piece. She also criticized a Los Angeles Times column that described her LSU team as “dirty debutantes”; the writer apologized and the newspaper removed the phrase.