Playing for Something Bigger
By Dawn Robinette, APR, Fellow PRSA | Photography by Suzanne Pack
Mary Ullmann Japhet has spent a lifetime proving that the greatest victories happen far beyond the scoreboard.
Sports have always been part of Mary Ullmann Japhet’s life, but not for the reasons most people might expect.
Ask the founder and owner of Japhet Media and the first woman to serve as chair of San Antonio Sports what first drew her to athletics, and she doesn’t begin with competition or championships. She talks about people.
“I always loved Olympic sport,” she explains. “As a kid, I watched as much as I could on TV. I loved the athlete stories — the kid from Texas who learned to fence, stories like that. I realized it wasn’t just about the sport. It was the people behind it. ‘The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat’ — that was always the most interesting part, and it still is for me today.”
That perspective has quietly shaped every chapter of her career.
Whether she was chasing stories as a television journalist, helping build one of the nation’s most respected sports commissions, launching her own communications firm, or working with some of San Antonio’s most influential nonprofit organizations, the common thread has never been athletics, media or public relations. It has been impact.
“I measure success by impact. What difference was made? If it’s with my clients, did it meet the goals we set out to meet? If it’s with the nonprofits I work with, are we making the impact we intend to make? If not, what do we do? How do we improve the impact to better people’s lives? That’s it at the end of the day.”
That philosophy now guides her as chair of San Antonio Sports, a role that makes history in more ways than one. In the organization’s 42-year history, no woman had ever served as board chair.
“When Jenny [Carnes, President and CEO of San Antonio Sports] approached me and said, ‘You know you’d be the first female chair,’ of course I knew that, but I hadn’t really thought of it,” Japhet says. “For an organization that had, at its senior leadership level, been largely run by women, we’d never had a female board chair.”
San Antonio Sports is best known for attracting marquee events such as NCAA Final Fours and national championships that have generated more than $1.6 billion in economic impact for the region. But that’s only part of the story.
“People sometimes think we’re just about bringing big events to town,” she says. “Those events are incredibly important because they create economic impact and they shine a spotlight on San Antonio. But what makes San Antonio Sports unique is everything that happens after the crowds go home.”
Unlike many sports commissions across the country, San Antonio Sports invests in free community programs designed to improve health, encourage physical activity, and create opportunities for children regardless of their circumstances. “That’s what makes me proud,” she says. “We’re changing lives every single day.”
She lights up describing the organization’s free after-school sports programs that introduce children – many from underserved neighborhoods – to soccer, football and other activities they might otherwise never experience. She talks about San Antonio Activate, which offers free fitness classes across the city, and the San Antonio Marathon, now locally owned and operated, so its proceeds stay in the community. “All of those programs lift our community in different ways.”
That community-first mission is one she knows intimately because she helped build it when what was supposed to be a temporary assignment changed the course of her life.
After working in television in Los Angeles, Japhet returned to San Antonio in the early 1990s to oversee advertising and special events for the U.S. Olympic Festival.
“I came back for what I thought was a short-term gig,” she recalls with a laugh. “My epitaph will say, ‘She could get in, but she couldn’t get out.’”
That temporary assignment transformed into an 18-year career with San Antonio Sports, first as a board member and later leading the organization’s communications and marketing efforts before eventually launching Japhet Media in 2019.
Throughout her career, she had been drawn to organizations with a mission larger than themselves. Whether helping a nonprofit tell its story, guiding a business through a communications challenge, or promoting one of the country’s premier sports commissions, she found herself asking the same questions: What difference does this organization make? Why should people care? How can its story inspire others?
“I’ve always loved connecting people and ideas. I love helping organizations figure out who they are, what they stand for, and how to communicate that.
“I’ve been fortunate to work with clients who are making a difference,” she says. “They’re driven by purpose. They’re driven by impact. That’s the kind of work I love because you know you’re helping move something meaningful forward.”
Purpose has become the filter through which she views every opportunity. It’s why she continues to volunteer, serving on boards including the Children’s Bereavement Center of South Texas and the Great Springs Project. And it explains why she still finds herself saying yes.
“I enjoy it. I’ve never been one to sit on the sidelines and wait for something to happen.”
That instinct came naturally.
“My dad was the go-to guy in our little community. He was always doing something for other people.”
Growing up in Runge, on a ranch in South Texas, she watched her father quietly serve wherever he was needed, while her mother, a teacher originally from Connecticut, nurtured her love of reading, writing, and exploring the world beyond their small town.
“I lucked out on the parent lottery,” Japhet says. “My career path has largely been thanks to my mom’s influence. My sense of community, impact and purpose is largely my dad.”
Those lessons still guide her decades after losing her father unexpectedly at just 58 years old.
“I think I got a lot of that from my dad,” she says of her commitment to community service. “I find causes that align with the things that interest me and where I feel I can make a difference.”
The ability to see the bigger picture has become one of her defining strengths. Clients turn to her for strategic counsel, nonprofit boards seek her perspective, and colleagues describe her as someone who instinctively looks beyond the immediate challenge to the long-term opportunity.
Yet for Mary, leadership has never been about being the loudest voice in the room.
It’s about listening first. Journalism taught her that.
Covering communities, asking questions, and meeting people from every walk of life reinforced something she had discovered years earlier while watching Olympic broadcasts: every person has a story worth hearing.
Those experiences continue to shape the way she approaches leadership today.
“You learn so much just by listening,” she says. “Everybody has something to teach you.”
That curiosity has also fueled her commitment to mentoring others. Whether she’s advising a young communications professional, encouraging an entrepreneur, or helping guide a nonprofit leader, she sees mentorship as another way to invest in her community.
“I’ve benefited from so many people who were willing to spend time with me,” she says. “If I can do that for someone else, why wouldn’t I?”
She believes every career is built through relationships—not transactions, but genuine connections rooted in trust, generosity and a willingness to help others succeed.
That philosophy extends well beyond business.
Outside the office, she finds balance in the outdoors, whether hiking, biking, traveling, or simply spending time in nature.
“Nature has always been my best medicine,” she says. It is where she slows down, reflects, and recharges before returning to work that often places her at the center of complex projects, high-profile events and community initiatives.
Even after decades of professional success, she isn’t motivated by recognition.
Ask what she hopes her legacy will be, and her answer doesn’t center on becoming the first woman to chair San Antonio Sports, building a successful communications firm or receiving accolades.
Instead, she returns to the same idea that has quietly threaded its way through every stage of her life.
Impact.
“I hope people would say I made a difference,” she says. “That I helped move things forward. That I helped make my community a little bit better.”
Whether leading a nonprofit board, advising a client through a pivotal moment or championing opportunities for children across San Antonio, Mary Ullmann Japhet continues to look beyond the headline to what matters most.
The event may bring people together.
The story is what stays with them.
And if her own story is any indication, the most meaningful victories are rarely measured by trophies or titles. They are measured by the lives touched, the communities strengthened, and the opportunities created for those who follow.
For Mary Ullmann Japhet, that’s always been the story worth telling.
