Jessica Luther

@jessicawluther.com

15950 Followers 1548 Following

Investigative journalist, mainly sports. Wrote a couple books. PhD in Sports Studies. Dissertation on U Texas women's bball team in the 1970s. Co-host @burnitalldownpod.com. Tall. Tired. She/Her. Austin, TX https://www.jessicawluther.com/

Unsold hotel rooms indicate that many will unload their seats on the secondary market. That also tells us that many overseas supporters either can’t get into the United States or fear Donald Trump’s draconian immigration policies. As a result, maybe more Americans will be able to afford to take their kids to a World Cup match, which isn’t all bad.
AI Overview That sounds like an incredibly surreal and, thankfully, fictional scene—perhaps from a movie or a dream! While it makes for a wild story, it's important to remember that babies cannot consume alcohol and are certainly not capable of giving tattoos.
Screenshot of a YouTube comment: @Trippenzoid 2 days ago Women should't have opinions on F1.
Screenshot of the City of Austin budget for 2026. It's a pie graph that shows that Austin Police receives 35.8% of the city's general fund, totaling $534.39 million.
Amira holding up a Mercedes lego F1 car, which is in profile
John, 62, Md., white, Republican, packaging specialist. "He did initiate the ending of the penny, silly as that is. And he initiated getting us out of the World Health Organization and the Paris climate agreement. Two positive things, I guess, if you really look at it on the whole. I mean, that was accounting for a lot of our budget money."
Joe Paterno cited by Gentleman's Quarterly? The next thing you know, Woody Allen will be up for the lead in the next Rambo movie.
A small black and white dog is curled up in a gray, fuzzy circular bed that is on top of a larger rectangular gray bed. There are toys and blankets on the ground around him.
Screenshot of newspaper article that reads "BATON ROUGE — It was "Maree Jackson Night" in the LSU Assembly Center Friday night and it was sweet revenge for the LSU Ben-Gals."
Clip from a newspaper with the title "Kittens' Poor Play Continues." Then it reads: "Jackson, Miss. - Coach Carolyn Spears can't explain the sudden play of her Louisiana College Kittens, but she would like to play a game at home some day to see if the familiar surroundings of West Fieldhouse would as a cure."
A black and white drawing of a girl on the left dribbling a basketball. On the upper right is a basketball hoop. On the right side of the image it says "Girls' Basketball Popularity" and underneath is a graph of sorts that reads from left to right "60s, early 70s, today" and there's a bouncing basketball going along the graph. It's high above "60s," very low over "Early 70s," and then in the middle over "today."
Jessica standing in a field, wearing a puffy coat, tights, and cap, race number on her hip, finisher medal around her neck, smiling and holding a brat in one hand, a beer in the other.
Puppy with tan, brown, and white coloring up against a fence that is a metal grid to prevent them escaping. The puppy has her face and front paws through a couple of the grid squares and is looking up at us.
Artemis II streaking across the bright blue sky on takeoff, with a big white trail of smoke behind it
Screen shot of Google Map directions showing a driving route from Austin, Texas, to Phoenix, Arizona. Says it is 15 hours, 6 minutes and 1,006 miles.
A screenshot of (from L): Julie Kliegman, Jessica Luther, and Reo Eveleth recording a podcast. It says 58:54 in the bottom right indicating they talked for a long time.
While making 14 of her 21 shots and 10 of her 11 free throws, Booker led the Longhorns with her 40 points. With that offensive effort, Booker became just the sixth Longhorn to score 40 points in a single game. She also beat what had been the school's tournament-record totals of 32 points that Clarissa Davis scored in a 1986 game against Western Kentucky and that Heather Schreiber produced against LSU in 2003.
A screenshot that reads "Light a Torch $100. Backers 69. Estimated delivery Jun 2026."
A protest sign reading "Trump can oligargle deez nutz"
"USC superstar Cheryl Miller soars over the pack, including UT's Kamie Ethridge." Miller is going up for a layup with her right hand. You can see every muscle in her arms. She looks like she's two feet off the ground. The players and the ref around her can only just watch.
Bursting magazine's bubble, Lady Longhorn center rejects Sports Illustrated's offer to pose in tub
FRANK FRERICKS, 27, marketing rep: "I don't follow women's athletics; I follow men's athletics somewhat. But it's great because it matters to them."
Dear Austin ISD Families and Staff, This week, the FBI notified the Austin ISD Police Department of a threat to 14 Texas schools, including three schools that shared names with Austin ISD schools. We immediately began working with our campus leadership to ensure the safety of our students and staff and we are staying in constant contact with the FBI. Today we received information that the threat appears to originate from outside the country. Still, out of an abundance of caution, Austin ISD Police will provide close support to Andrews, Baranoff and Barrington elementary schools. This was a stressful event for many of our families and we understand the need for additional districtwide communications in instances that receive this level of media attention.
There are workers in what appears to be missile control (there are radar screens and the words ALERT and LAUNCH). The caption reads, “Hey, What’s that clown think he’s doing?” One of the workers is pointing at a circus clown who is about to push a launch button.
Text exchange. Me in blue: “NOT T.A.T.U.” Friend in gray: “I KNOW.” Me in blue: “OMG THE WAY THE SONG SHIFTS JFC this show is so well done.”
Is the push to expand Turning Point USA to all campuses a political move?
Screenshot showing book is price at $3.99 on Kindle
Screenshot of a tweet from Oakman_Rules, written on August 23, 2015 at 9:50pm. The tweet reads: "The shitty journalism award for 2015 goes to Texas Monthly dan solomon and scatx" (the latter referring to Jessica's old Twitter handle)
Yesterday, Tuesday, June 24, the National Archives at College Park, Maryland, announced its closure to the public, starting July 7, except for those with “legitimate business interests.” The head of Research Services responded to an email query about continued access to the College Park facility saying: “Onsite research is a legitimate business need to access the facility. There is additional information on the Visitor Requirements section of the National Archives at College Park webpage." As of 9pm last night, NARA switched the page back to what it was prior to the announcement. The banner and all the changes to the wording online had been removed. OAH will continue to monitor the situation and share what we learn. We encourage you to contact your Congressional representatives to voice your support for NARA and continued access to NARA research facilities.
A second Latino man from Las Vegas spoke admiringly of Trump and Andrew Tate, a controversial influencer who has been accused of rape and sex trafficking, as “always loved and hated, but they’re truthful, honest, to what they believe in.”
Jessica in her burnt orange PhD regalia, holding a basketball with the word TEXAS on it and giving the hook em sign with her other hand.
Jessica from behind, standing with her arms up, biceps flexed, wearing an Austin FC Armadillo Kit jersey that says “Dr Luther” across the back and the number 25
“Desexigration and Desegregation: Gender, Race, and Women’s Basketball at the University of Texas in the 1970s” examines the ways in which the University of Texas addressed gender and racial discrimination following the passage of major civil rights legislation and during the early years of the women’s intercollegiate athletics department through the lens of its most high-profile team, the women’s basketball team. Desegregation efforts demanded that marginalized people assimilate into the white populace while desexigration efforts required separation and isolation for female athletes from the larger men’s athletics infrastructure. In athletics specifically, the intense fight to carve out and maintain any space for women caused many administrators and coaches, who were often white, to focus solely on gender discrimination with little concern for the impact of race. For example, Rodney Page, a Black man hired to coach the UT women’s basketball team from 1973 to 1976, was the first Black head coach at Texas and another would not be hired until 1992. He is still one of only seven head coaches in the school’s history and until very recently, he was largely forgotten by women’s athletics. Caught in the middle of these policies were Black female athletes like Retha Swindell, the first Black female varsity athlete at UT, who were navigating multiple institutional structures that were hostile to their presence. By evaluating desexigration alongside desegregation instead of as two separate phenomena, this dissertation argues that attempts to end gender and racial discrimination in athletics were not linear and were often uneven. Many white women, like Donna Lopiano, the first women’s athletic director at Texas, and Jody Conradt, the legendary basketball coach who was hired in 1976, found new, if not challenging, avenues open to them while many people of color, especially Black women, were overlooked or ignored in yet another arena of their lives. By studying
Ralph, a black labradoodle, lying on his bed, one arm over the side and his paw hooked under on the ground. He is looking out the window.
Screenshot of newspaper article title, "Women's basketball isn't a sissy game" by Andy Meisler
It’s no wonder that Spurr was worrying over possible legal consequences if the university moved too slowly. In December 1973, Harry Reger, along with an attorney who also had a daughter interested in playing tennis at UT, met with Mary Teague, the Equal Employment Opportunity Officer, in Austin. “The purpose of their visit was to determine the status of women’s athletics and financial support thereof at UT-Autin,” Teague wrote to Lorene Rogers. “They feel it is extremely important that UT-Austin, as the most prestigious and powerful university in the state, take the lead in desexigrating (a word I borrowed from HEW officials) athletic programs.” After Teague informed them that the Council was working on the problem, “they indicated that they would pursue this matter, via litigation, if necessary.”
Introduction Chapter 1: Women’s Basketball in Texas and at UT Before 1968 Chapter 2: Women Demand Varsity Athletics at the UT, 1968–1973 Chapter 3: Separate and Unequal: The Desexigration of Intercollegiate Athletics at UT, 1973–1974 Chapter 4: Together but Unequal: Desegregation at UT Chapter 5: The First Year of Women’s Basketball at UT, 1974 Chapter 6: Donna Lopiano and the Defense of Title IX, 1975 Chapter 7: Retha Swindell Enters and Rodney Page Exits, 1976 Chapter 8: The End of the Beginning for Women’s Sports at UT, 1976–1979 Epilogue
The coach who maintains the traditional attitude of "natural" male superiority will feel constantly threatened, frustrate and harassed. He will envision his public image tarnished, his goals thwarted by new economic concerns, and a seemingly ungrateful and insatiable group of women pretenders continually seeking to further erode his traditional prerogatives. What's worse, suppose the women should actually be "more successful" than he himself?
Remove the ‘Finish Setting Up Your iPhone or iPad’ alert 1) Open the Settings app on your iOS device. 2) Tap a message asking that you finish setting up your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, displayed at the top of the Settings app right below your Apple ID profile picture. 3) You will be taken to a new screen with options for managing any features that you have not originally enabled during the initial iOS setup, like setting up Apple Pay on this device, signing into your Apple ID, enabling Siri, turning on iMessage, and so forth. Tap the option to Set Up Apple Pay, Set Up Siri, Set Up iMessage, or such to continue. If you’ve skimped on more than one feature during the iOS setup process, this option should be labeled Finish Setting Up. 4) On the next screen, choose the option to set up the feature at a later stage. Basically, the trick is to choose to set up a feature and then cancel the process. If necessary, do this for a second time for the annoying message to clear.
Screenshot of newspaper article: By Jeffrey St. John Copley News Service New York - "The American people are slow to wrath," observed Teddy Roosevelt some 71 years ago, "but when their wrath is once kindled, it burns like a consuming fire." The federal, state and city governments of this country are stoking the fires of racial conflict by an immoral policy of requiring "discrimination in reverse" in hiring unqualified blacks and minorities at the expense of qualified whites. Just as the issue of busing smoldered below the surface like molten lava from a volcano for some time, so the angry wrath of Americans is likely to explode in the face of politicians favoring quotas of employment for blacks and minorities. Early in June, Carl Shiffman, a senior investigator for the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission resigned his job in anger, charging the agency discriminated against him both as a white and a Jew. Shiffman specifically charges that the commission "discriminates in favor of Negroes and Spanish-surnamed Americans in hiring, promotion, and terms of employment in violation of the laws (the commission) was set up to enforce." Nor is this an isolated case. A systematic pattern of discrimination in favor of hiring blacks and minorities is actively being pushed in government agencies and intense pressure is being mounted by the federal government for private business to hire by racial quota.
Screenshot of a newspaper article titled "Woman, 102, Hates Water" PARIS - Madame Eva Kanony boarded a recent Air France flight from Paris to Toulouse to visit relatives. Except for the fact everyone made a fuss about her age – she's 102 years old – the flight was uneventful one for the grand dame, who still enjoys a glass of wine with every meal and detest soup because it contains water.
If you are a cisgender ally to the transgender community, I want you to think long and hard about how you can make a difference in these trying times. Can you send a trans person money to ensure that they don’t end up on the streets? Can you donate to bail funds that keep marginalized people out of prison? Can you yourself demonstrate in the streets so that somebody who is more at risk can stay home? These are dark and scary times, but we all have our parts to play moving forward. Don’t think for a single second that you can’t help because you aren’t anybody’s idea of a hero. Anybody can be a hero. They just have to decide to be one.
My black labradoodle, Ralph, in my office, standing in front of a small couch, looking up at the camera, his very pink tongue sticking out.
My black labradoodle, Ralph, lying on his side in the sun, conked out in the dirt of our backyard.
Cecile Richards marching in front of a parade of people in the dark in 2013. In front of her is an orange banner with white lettering reading “In for the long run,” with a white state of Texas on the right. She has her hand raised and her fingers in a “V.” In the picture, Jessica Luther is on her right doing the same gesture with her right hand, her phone in her left. Both are wearing orange.
Two women, Jessica on the left, crossing the finish line of a half marathon. Both are smiling with their hands raised in celebration.
There are 10 decorated sugar cookies in a silver rimmed baking sheet. From the upper left moving clockwise, roughly: a star that has a chocolate cookie interior with a sugar cookie around it, decorated with white lines and balls and blue edible glitter. A small round cookie with a string of multi-color lights. A white snowflake with white piping. A green Christmas tree. A champagne flute with white foam and bubbles and "2025" written in black edible ink. A Santa face with a hat whose brim and ball are covered in white sugar, a red nose, a mustache, and even eyebrows. A wreath with red berries. Another green Christmas tree. A reindeer face with antlers and a big red nose. And finally, a white llama with the words "Fa-la-la-la-llama" written across his front.
Screen shot of my chapter in Scrivener so it's possible to see the outline format of the chapter and the different file and folder icons
Screenshot of Spotify wrapped that shows an image of Orla Gartland with the following: “My Top Artist Orla Gartland Minutes Listened 2,552 Top 0.01% of listeners worldwide”
Baked apple pie with a lattice top and crimped edge, browned and resting on a parchment-lined baking sheet
Uncooked pie on a parchment-covered baking sheet. The top of the pie is wide lattice with crimped edges.
Screenshot of text, sent “Today 4:27PM” that reads “The dog pooped and Stardew has been updated”
Black labradoodle sitting in the backseat of a car, his hair cut short, wearing a pumpkin scarf around his neck. He’s looking to the side and the light is hitting him perfectly.
Black labradoodle, sitting on a colorful carpet. He’s wearing a bright red bow around his neck, he just got a hair cut, and is looking straight into the camera. A heartthrob.
Screen Shot shows part of the Table of Contents, which includes five sections of the book: "The Carnival, Cemeteries, Some Negro Cults, Gay Times in Old New Orleans, Gardens"
Screen shot of the text in the skeet
Screen shot of article with title "Vibrators to Hold First Practice of Ball Season Today." "The Tee-Pee Vibrators will hold their initial practice of the season this morning at Franklin Field and Manager Sal Ressa is anxious to have all candidates report at 9 o'clock sharp. The workout will last only two hours as the field must be cleared by 11 o'clock. The Vibrators are one of six members which compose the Business Men's League and which opens on Sunday, April 20. Doubleheaders will be played each Saturday afternoon at Franklin Field."
Black labradoodle layig on a plushy 3-side bed, one arm draped over side of bed, looking directly into camera
Screenshot from Facebook. "On this day 11 years ago" Then my profile picture and name. The date is "September 20, 2013." It reads: "Fun story: I was supposed to be profiled on my department's website. It was approved, ready to go. And a staff member in the department vetoed it. I have a lot of feeling about this but the main one is that I just need to finish on up and see myself out of that place."
Screenshot that reads: "Coach Darrell Royal says he is frankly puzzled about why the University of Texas has a racist image among many blacks."