SportsCenter anchor Linda Cohn spoke about defeating low expectations in everything from ice hockey to sports journalism at an event Thursday.

Cohn, who has worked for ESPN since 1992, said when she started working toward becoming a sports reporter in the late 70s, there were few women covering sports on television.

“There just wasn’t [any women] out there, but for some reason I believed I could do it,” she said.

She said she wanted to be a sports reporter because she grew up playing street and ice hockey in Long Island, New York.

When she was a teenager, she enrolled in a boys’ ice hockey league, but instead of playing with boys her own age, she had to play against eight-year-olds.

Cohn said she heard the other kids’ parents whispering behind her back, but she did not care because she was there to play a sport she loved. She said this experience helped prepare her for times later in life when male broadcasters whispered behind her back because she was a woman.

Cohn said when she was first hired by ESPN, there were still few women covering sports. Established SportsCenter anchor Dan Patrick called her to congratulate her on being hired.

After he congratulated her, however he said, “Most of the women before you here have all failed.” Cohn said she was shaken by what Patrick said, but she did not let it bother her.

Instead, she turned to a motto she had used ever since she first made the boys’ hockey team her senior year of high school:

“I’m not going to let you down,” she said.

These were the first words out of her mouth when her high school hockey coach told her she made the team, and she has said them many more times in her broadcasting career, both to herself and to male producers.

Cohn promoted her book, “Cohn-Head: A No-Holds Barred Account of Breaking Into the Boys’ Club,” which was published in September.

After the lecture, she took questions from the audience and signed copies of her book.

Cohn was invited to OU by the Delta Gamma sorority to talk about and sign copies of her book, “Cohn-Head: A No-Holds-Barred Account of Breaking Into the Boys’ Club,” and to answer questions from students. Psychology junior Deena Hasbini was in charge of Delta Gamma’s efforts to bring Cohn to OU.

“She’s my idol,” Hasbini said. “I love her.”

Hasbini said the sorority raised $50,000, which the national Delta Gamma organization then matched, to fund a lectureship.

The first lecture was hosted in 2006, when Jeff Probst from the television series Survivor came to OU.

Public Relations sophomore Aran Coleman helped make the decision to bring Cohn to the university.

“I’m really excited about it,” she said. “We’ve been working on it since last year.”

Cohn also made a prediction about OU’s football game against Texas Tech University this weekend.

“Listen, there’s a reason why I’m here, and I’m going to take full responsibility for a Sooners victory Saturday night,” Cohn said.