Katie Hnida stays on the move despite significant health problems

Ex-Lobo kicker Hnida deals with assorted health issues

Katie Hnida is a gamer. Despite a harrowing experience at the University of Colorado, Hnida, a homecoming queen/football placekicker in high school, refused to give up on her dream of kicking in college.

She realized that dream at the University of New Mexico. After college, she turned the Colorado negativity into a career as a speaker and counselor, combating violence against women.

In recent days, however, health problems have kept Hnida — though not her voice — on the sidelines at her home in San Diego, or with her family in Colorado while convalescing.

“I have a benign brain tumor that’s really been working some havoc on my body,” she said in a recent interview with the Journal. “... Right now it can’t be removed, which is where I ran into a problem. Thank God, it’s benign. I’m trying to focus on that.”

As a side effect, she said, she is dealing with a disorder called dysautonomia, which affects the autonomic nervous system in various ways. She also has been diagnosed with an autoimmune disease that affects muscle connective tissue.

“Some days,” she said, “can be horrible.”

The optimism that led her to enroll at UNM after the trauma at Colorado, though, still thrives.

“On one hand,” she said, “it may be a little bit of a blessing. I was really going a hundred miles an hour.

“I was doing more than 50 flights a year to places. I was sort of living on the road.”

Hnida, 36, made college football history on Christmas Day 2002 when then-UNM coach Rocky Long sent her in to attempt a point-after against UCLA in the Las Vegas Bowl. Her kick was blocked, but she nonetheless became the first woman to appear in an NCAA Division I-A (now Football Bowl Subdivision) game.

In the days that followed, she found herself being interviewed on ESPN, CNN, Fox News, CBS’ “The Early Show” and ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

Even so, the blocked kick rankled. “I didn’t get far enough under it,” she said that evening.

On Aug. 30, 2003, that matter was put to rest. In a 72-8 UNM rout of Texas State, she successfully converted on two PATs.

“I was hoping I’d get another shot,” she said after the game. “It’s been eight months since the last kick. I’ve been wanting to redeem that and erase that out of my memory for a while.”

She also said, “To me, it’s never been about history or records. It’s all about kicking. I just love football.”