When she was growing up on the East side of St. Paul, opportunities to participate in sports did not exist for girls – so Kathy Korum made her own opportunities.

The only sport offered at the local rec center was modified fast-pitch softball, so she joined that team. She also played baseball, hockey and football with the boys – until she got sent home because she was a girl. During her time at Johnson High School, Korum played basketball, volleyball and ran track, and her senior year she became the first girl to earn a varsity letter on a boys’ team at JHS when she competed on the boys’ golf team. Not only did she compete with the boys – she won every match.

Korum went on to Augsburg where she was a four-year starter on the volleyball team and a three-year starter for the softball team, and the only reason she didn’t earn four letters in softball is because she skipped her junior year to compete on the men’s golf team. She became the first woman to earn a varsity letter in a men’s sport at Augsburg, and, according to Golf Digest, recorded the longest double eagle by a woman in the U.S. at the par 5, 445-yard 12th hole at Keller Golf Course in 1980.

After graduation, Korum coached volleyball, softball and basketball for six years at Humboldt High School and officiated basketball at all levels for 15 years – and she never stopped creating opportunities for herself.

Prior to finding full-time work, she was turned away from the St. Paul Fire Department for being a woman – so she spent more than six years as a firefighter and EMT with the Woodbury Fire Department, where she became the department’s first female officer as an interim lieutenant. 

She worked for 42 years in the City of St. Paul’s Parks and Recreation Department – including nearly 15 years in the golf operations office. She was a golf pro for eight years, was the department’s first safety officer and served as the department’s first female supervisor of Municipal Athletics. She also served as an adjunct faculty member at the Minneapolis Community and Technical College in the Urban parks, Recreation and Youth Development and Law Enforcement programs.