Clemson University's Robert H. Brooks Sports Science Institute, in collaboration with the College of Behavioral, Social, and Health Sciences and Department of Communication, presents famous sports journalist and author, Christine Brennan. 

Brennan is an award-winning national sports columnist for USA Today, a commentator for CNN, ABC News, PBS NewsHour and NPR, a best-selling author and a nationally-known speaker.

Named one of the country’s top 10 sports columnists three times by the Associated Press Sports Editors, she has covered the last 20 Olympic Games, summer and winter. In March 2020, Brennan was named the winner of the prestigious Red Smith Award, presented annually to a person who has made “major contributions to sports journalism.”

Brennan was the first woman sportswriter at The Miami Herald in 1981 and the first woman to cover Washington’s NFL team as a staff writer at The Washington Post in 1985. She was the first president of the Association for Women in Sports Media (AWSM) and started a scholarship-internship program that has supported more than 175 female students over the past two decades.

Brennan is the author of seven books. Her 2006 sports memoir, Best Seat in the House, is the only father-daughter memoir written by a sports journalist. Her 1996 national best-seller, Inside Edge, was named one of the top 100 sports books of all-time by Sports Illustrated.

She is a leading voice on some of the most controversial and important issues in sports. Her USA Today column in April 2002 on Augusta National Golf Club triggered the national debate on the club’s lack of female members. In December 2002, Sports Illustrated’s Golf Plus section named her one of golf’s 12 heroes of the year. In August 2012, Brennan broke the news that Augusta National was admitting its first two women members. She also broke the story of the pairs figure skating scandal at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics and the Russian judging scandal at the 2014 Sochi Games.

Both the NCAA and the Women’s Sports Foundation honored her in celebrations for the 40th anniversary of Title IX in 2012.

Brennan will be speaking to the public on April 10 at 7 p.m. in the new Humanities Hall (HUM G66). Her lecture is titled, "Title IX: The Next 50 Years."

Please contact Kayla Rogers at krroge2@clemson.edu for support. Learn more about Brennan’s achievements at ChristineBrennan.com.