Austin, Texas ? When Jody Conradt started out, she was a physical education teacher who didn’t get paid to coach.

Back then, women played 6-on-6, and only two players could go the length of the court.

“People say they love doing their job so much they’d do it for free,” Conradt said. “Well, I can prove it.”

Her first coaching victory came with Sam Houston State in 1969 — so long ago that the school doesn’t have official records from that season. Now at Texas, Conradt is one victory away from becoming the second women’s basketball coach with 800.

She could reach that milestone tonight when the 17th-ranked Longhorns (11-4 overall, 4-0 Big 12) face No. 7 Texas Tech (15-1, 4-0).

Conradt is 799-262 in 34 seasons.

Until this month, the 800 club included only a handful of men’s coaching greats. Three Div. I men’s coaches — Dean Smith, Adolph Rupp and Jim Phelan — have 800 or more wins. Smith retired in 1997 with a record 879 wins, while Rupp had 876. Phelan will retire at the end of this season.

Texas Tech men’s coach Bob Knight is close with 798.

In Division II, Clarence Gaines of Winston-Salem and Jerry Johnson of LeMoyne-Owen also have surpassed 800 victories.

The sport has changed drastically since Conradt started coaching. Games are broadcast on television in prime time, last season’s NCAA final drew 29,000 fans, and the WNBA has survived as a professional league.

Reaching 800 wins would be significant for any coach. Conradt insists it would be just one more game in a season in which the Longhorns are trying to win a Big 12 title and return to the NCAA Tournament.

Maybe it’s because she’ll be No. 2 in the women’s 800 club.

More likely it’s because only one of those 799 victories won a national title.

“I think it would be shortsighted to focus on 800 wins,” Conradt said. “We would be shortchanging a lot of young women that have worked hard.

“They don’t remember 1976,” she said, referring to when she started at Texas. “They weren’t even born.”

Texas was the first undefeated national champion in 1986. In 1997, Conradt was the first women’s coach to 700 victories. In 2001, she was the first to work 1,000 games. She was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1998.