When Jenny Carnes started working as an unpaid college intern for the San Antonio Sports Foundation in the fall of 1999, she never expected she’d one day be running the organization responsible for hosting many of San Antonio’s biggest sporting events.
Carnes says her journey to becoming head of what’s now San Antonio Sports started even earlier than that, though — when she was first given a basketball in kindergarten.
“A coach gave me a basketball when I was … at an all-boys basketball camp, and I can truly say I would not be in my job today had that coach not seen something in me and given me that ball that I then practiced with every single day for the next 10-plus years.”
Carnes went on to play basketball in high school and then for the University of the Incarnate Word, where she also studied business management and sports management, graduating magna cum laude the same year she interned for San Antonio Sports.
Over the years, Carnes has held multiple roles in the organization, including executive director of the local organizing committee for several NCAA Men’s Final Fours, the 2021 NCAA Women’s DI Basketball Tournament, and senior vice president, among others. In 2022, she became the CEO of San Antonio Sports, following in the footsteps of Russ Bookbinder, who led the organization for 10 years before her.
Launched 41 years ago by a group of San Antonio’s sports visionaries who held weekly meetings over buckets of fried chicken, San Antonio Sports has become a staple in San Antonio, both helping the city secure and host eight NCAA Final Four events and running half a dozen youth programs that target helping underserved communities.
Now, with the 2025 NCAA Men’s Final Four happening in San Antonio in less than a week, the nonprofit’s 21 staff members are running full steam ahead. But there will be no rest for the weary once the colossal event concludes because, this year, San Antonio Sports is also helping the city launch its first independent marathon in December, making 2025 truly a monumental year for San Antonio Sports.
“This is the most exciting year, I think, in our organization’s history,” Carnes said. “And to be a part of it all these years later, and to know that we’re making a difference for our community, both in economic impact, but also legacy events, legacy programs, kids events — it’s just, it’s amazing, and I’m super proud to to be a part of San Antonio Sports.”
In the spotlight
As of November 2024, San Antonio Sports estimates it has had an economic impact of more than $1 billion in San Antonio since its founding. The 2025 NCAA Men’s Final Four is expected to have an additional $440 million economic impact on the city and to draw more than 100,000 visitors downtown.
San Antonio Sports now operates a $7 million budget and manages close to 2,300 volunteers annually, not including the roughly 2,500 volunteers it directs for the Men’s Final Four.
Apart from this year’s Final Four and the city’s inaugural marathon in December, the organization is also preparing to help San Antonio host the 2026 NCAA D1 Women’s Volleyball Championship, the 2027 NCAA D1 Men’s Basketball Regional tournament, and the 2029 NCAA Women’s Final Four, said Elena Wells, executive director of the San Antonio Local Organizing Committee and vice president of event development for San Antonio Sports.
That’s on top of the regular programming the nonprofit has, which includes Activate SA, i play! afterschool, Beyond the Game and the city’s All-Star football and basketball games.
The organization’s incoming chair Mary Ullmann Japhet said she’s seen the organization both transform and be transformed by San Antonio over its 41-year history.
Japhet served as San Antonio Sports’ senior vice president of communications and marketing for 18 years prior to starting her own public relations media company in 2019 and has remained an active board member.
“This is a very big year for San Antonio Sports,” she said. “The organization is a real backbone of our community.”
Fried Chicken Gang
As a part of the “Fried Chicken Gang,” the group of San Antonio sports leaders that first conceptualized a San Antonio Sports foundation, renowned San Antonio swim coach George Block says it’s incredible to see what San Antonio Sports has become.
Block, who trained nine Olympians during his career and went on to serve as the athletic administrator of Northside Independent School District for 35 years, credits the excitement surrounding the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles for the organization’s rise.
He said it was this excitement that pushed then-Mayor Henry Cisneros to create an “amateur sports task force,” which consisted of Block, fellow swimmer Pete Williams, local architect Ralph Bender, former pentathlete Robert Marbut, Jr., and Bill Hanson, the executive director of then-San Antonio-based U.S. Modern Pentathlon Association.
The group met on Tuesday nights to discuss how they could help the city capitalize on amateur sports tourism, Block said, adding that they would always have a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken as they plotted.
After two years of dedicated efforts, the San Antonio Sports Foundation was officially established with the goal of bringing the Olympic Festival to the city. However, despite their relentless work, the 1991 Olympic Festival was ultimately awarded to Los Angeles because San Antonio lacked the necessary facilities to host such a high-profile event.
Spurred by the rejection, Cisneros and the Fried Chicken Gang were able to secure approval to place a proposal for a temporary half-cent tax increase on the ballot just two days later, aimed at funding the construction of a “domed” stadium.
In January 1989, the tax passed and construction of the Alamodome began. In 1991, the city was awarded the 1993 Olympic Festival, with the Alamodome officially opening its doors in time for the event.
“We had years that we’re only surviving because we’re being housed by one of our volunteers in their office complexes, and our first sort of big victory was the ’93 Olympic Festival,” he said. “The irony is that it almost made us go broke.”
But the success of the Olympic Festival boosted the organization’s profile and paved the way for future events, solidifying its reputation and ensuring its survival through subsequent years of growth and development.
The Alamodome hosted its first Men’s Final Four in 1998, led by bidding efforts from the San Antonio Sports Foundation. This year’s Final Four brings the total to five men’s and three women’s tournaments held in San Antonio. San Antonio last held the Men’s Final Four in 2018, winning the bid to host it again in 2025 that same year.
“It’s both amazing and it’s exactly what we dreamed because we knew it was possible,” Block said of San Antonio Sports’ growth and success.
Every step tells a story
Block said he believes it’s the group’s success in these major events that has given the city the confidence to finally let San Antonio Sports launch the San Antonio Marathon.
He joked that San Antonio Sports has been “sort of politely fighting with the city” for years about taking over the marathon, because they saw “so much money getting sucked out of the city,” due to the marathon being hosted by the California-based Competitor Group as a part of their Rock ‘n’ Roll Running Series.
Carnes and Block both credited former city manager Sheryl Sculley for bringing San Antonio its first Rock ‘n’ Roll marathon in 2008.
An avid runner who’s completed numerous marathons, including two Boston Marathons, Sculley recognized the potential for a major race to promote fitness and boost the city’s reputation.
“Ten years ago, there were not a lot of people out running regularly,” Sculley told the San Antonio Report in 2016 while preparing for a City Manager’s 5K. “Now you can’t go anywhere without seeing people out running.” San Antonio’s 2024 Rock ‘n’ Roll marathon had an estimated 19,000 participants.
Carnes said San Antonio Sports is excited for the new challenge of hosting San Antonio’s own marathon. The nonprofit has partnered with the city and marathon industry experts from The Trust Group to get the inaugural event up and running.
The marathon’s theme is “Every Step Tells a Story,” Carnes said. From an Alamo-themed mile, to a Spurs-themed mile, to a Whataburger-themed mile, San Antonio Sports is excited to release the full course later this week, Carnes said.
“We’ve been working for so many years, and we’ve built this really cool team, and to be in this position to show our community what we can do on a large scale — and then deliver something like the marathon — that is what we’re what we’re all about, what we’ve been working toward,” said Wells.
The marathon is set to take place Dec. 7. Registration for the event is currently open.
