The statue of Jody Conradt unveiled Friday inside the Erwin Center honors the countless women who have achieved success during her 36 years at the University of Texas, the legendary basketball coach told the crowd gathered for the dedication ceremony.

Conradt won 900 games and the 1986 NCAA championship as the Texas womens coach, her tenure stretching from 1976 to 2007. She coached 28 players who went on to play professionally, and four who competed at the Olympics. She was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1998.

The 71-year-old Conradt has received many honors, but this was one different. She watched with curious eyes Friday afternoon as a seven-foot, 600-pound bronze statue of the Texas icon was unveiled before friends and family on the arenas concourse.

The statue, created by New Jersey-based artist Brian Hanlon, shows Conradt flashing the Hook em Horns hand signal.

About 600 people, including former Tennessee basketball coach Pat Summitt, crowded into the Lone Star Room at the Erwin Center for the hour-long ceremony. Conradt joined the late congresswoman and civil rights champion Barbara Jordan as the only women to be honored with statues on the UT campus.

This statue represents many things, and it comes on the 40th anniversary of Title IX, which was significant for all women, not just women in sports, Conradt said. This law has given tremendous opportunities you never could have imagined before. I hope every young woman will feel a sense of pride that this university values their commitment and talent. Its one of the most dramatic statements a university can make.

Title IX, signed in law by President Nixon in 1972, paved the way for Conradt and women to prosper in a field previously dominated by men. One of the first milestones came when the university created the department of womens athletics in 1975.

Conradt made the crowd roar with laughter when she spoke about a headline in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram announcing her hiring at Texas: Woman hired at man-sized salary.

And that was all of $17,000, Conradt said.

Also in 1975, Texas hired a driven Donna Lopiano as the departments first athletics director. Conradt described her longtime friend and associate as the pushiest Yankee ever to come to the university, an unlikely person to come to a conservative place.

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Statute of Longhorn coaching legend Conradt unveiled inside Erwin Center