This paper details coaching experiences of women sport pedagogy academics. While numerous studies of coach socialization exist (e.g., Segrave, 1981; Chu, 1983; Sage, 1989, 1995), few have included women at all and none have addressed the experiences of women exclusively. In a larger study of women's socialization into the professoriate, coaching was found to be a significant career step for many. This paper provides details of their experiences as coaches at secondary and collegiate levels. Participants were 54 women sport pedagogy professors (assistants, associates, and full professors) from all classifications of Carnegie institutions who had published or presented research papers in the past five years. Data were collected via 2-4 hour interviews, audiotaped and transcribed verbatim, about the life/career history of the participant (Arksey & Knight, 1999; Kvale, 1996; Rubin & Rubin, 1995). Participants were asked to recall important and salient events, people, and circumstances from early childhood through adolescence, aspects of their formal and informal education and work history, and key relationships and experiences in and outside work. Participants' curriculum vitae, "rainbow of life roles" (Super, 1980), and career timeline (Lambdin, 1986) constituted additional data sources. Completed copies of interview transcripts were returned to participants for individual member checking. Inductively derived categories formulated directly from this data set and deductive categories based on a priori constructs from professional socialization literature were used in the analysis via constant comparison (Strauss & Corbin, 1998) including open, axial, selective, and process coding (Corbin & Strauss, 1998), and Spradley's techniques of domain, componential, and taxonomic analysis (Spradley, 1979). The Ethnograph V. 5 was used to manage and organize the data. Results indicated that their experiences range across time to include some who coached at the advent of Title IX (1972) to others who have coached within the last ten years. Regardless of the timeframe, most entered coaching believing in its educational value, not with teaching as a career contingency. Most left coaching for two primary reasons: the extensive time commitments (lack of personal life) and external pressures to conform to the predominant male model (e.g., emphasis on recruiting, pressures to win). Many started teams for girls or women at their institutions (in the early days of Title IX). Most learned to coach informally through role models. Many reported discrimination based on gender or sexual orientation. All reported positive effects of coaching on their subsequent career paths.