Mary Ullmann Japhet, class of ‘84, never saw herself with a career in sports, yet she made one in San Antonio that has lasted decades. From her time at the local San Antonio station KENS 5, to the local nonprofit San Antonio Sports, and finally to managing a media company with her name on it, Japhet’s career path wasn’t as straightforward as her younger self envisioned.
“My time at Trinity as a student was focused on broadcast journalism,” Japhet said. “I knew from the age of 16 exactly where I wanted to go to school, what I wanted to do. And I never wavered.”
While she was an upperclassman at Trinity, Japhet pursued her career in broadcast journalism and interned at KENS 5. She worked long hours by choice, and it ultimately paid off. Japhet became a weekend reporter only three weeks into her internship.
“I was that kind of intern they had to kick out at the end of the day and say, ‘Go home please’” Japhet said. “I just loved it.”
Japhet, though she remains a sports enthusiast, was always more focused on being a news reporter. The internship at KENS 5 gave her the opportunity to blend those interests on occasion.
“I loved doing the oddball sports story,” Japhet said. “Stories on fencers, modern pentathletes, someone who was competing in some random kind of competition and telling that story from the athlete’s perspective. That was really fun for me.”
Japhet spent nearly seven years at KENS 5 before she moved to Los Angeles to start work as a freelance field producer. While in Los Angeles, Japhet worked with Entertainment Tonight, The Learning Channel and Oprah Winfrey’s multimedia corporation, Harpo Productions. However, her most consequential gig came when she volunteered for the U.S. Olympic Festival in 1991.
As she was leaving her shift at the public relations office, Japhet ran into someone she knew back in San Antonio. He was a part of a group Japhet had done stories on with KENS. That group was putting together a sports commission that would go after major events for San Antonio.
According to Japhet, they had won the bid to host the next U.S. Olympics Festival and needed a director of special events and advertising. Three weeks later, she was sitting in her new office in San Antonio with the job.
“I fully anticipated I would go back to L.A. as soon as the gig wrapped up,” Japhet said. “Long story short, I ran into a guy I had gone to Trinity with. Thirty one and a half years of marriage and two kids later, I never went back to Los Angeles.”
As Japhet grew her family, she kept her ties with the growing San Antonio Sports organization, which had graduated from pursuing Olympic Festivals to bidding on multiple Final Fours. Japhet remained on the board of San Antonio Sports, but was given an offer for a larger role: head of marketing and public relations.
“After talking to my husband, who reminded me I was giving them all my time for free anyways, I said yes,” Japhet said. “I was ready to sink my teeth into something meaningful, and I truly believed in the mission of San Antonio Sports, so I joined the staff and was there for 18 years.”
Japhet devoted herself to San Antonio Sports and continued to go after big events. During her time with the organization, they brought three men’s Final Fours to the city, resulting in economic benefits for San Antonio.
“People think the city that brings in the Final Four makes a bunch of money,” Japhet said. “That’s not true. We pay for the privilege of hosting it. Where the community makes the money is in the direct economic impact of people staying in your hotels and eating at your restaurants … I’m very proud to say we’ve brought well over a billion dollars of direct economic impact for our community.”
Now Japhet runs her own media and public relations company, Japhet Media, where she works on communications strategies for her clients. Even though she’s her own boss now, Japhet hasn’t forgotten where it all started.
“I love Trinity,” Japhet said. “I love supporting Trinity in any way I can. I’ve been everything from chair of our local alumni chapter, to the National Alumni Board, to participating in task forces to hiring personnel to guest lecturer.”
It wasn’t the career Japhet expected when she was 16. She didn’t end up being a longtime broadcast journalist, but she may have done just about everything else. As Japhet would tell you, the path to success isn’t always straight.
