Utah Sports Hall of Famer Fern Gardner coached women’s basketball at Utah State University and the University of Utah, and was one of the first and most prominent female athletics administrators of her time.

Gardner arrived at Utah in 1975 and served the dual role of women’s basketball coach and women’s athletics director. Her spectacular coaching career ended with 319 total victories, and in eight years as head coach of the Utah Utes, she averaged 22 wins a season, including eight trips to the NCAA Tournament and Region 7 Coach of the Year honors three times. She gave up coaching in 1983 to focus on her administrative responsibilities, and was elevated to the full-time assistant athletics director position, then later to associate athletics director and finally senior associate athletics director.

During her time as an administrator, Gardner served on numerous NCAA committees. Upon her retirement from collegiate athletics, Gardner turned her focus to another one of her loves—golf. She won the gold medal for her age group in the 1997 and 1998 Senior Games and has also served as president of the Sunbrook Ladies Golf Association.