Longtime Utah sports information director Liz Abel is retiring. College athletics — and her job — changed monumentally during her tenure.

(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Longtime University of Utah sports SID Liz Abel is retiring after 36 years on the job. After decades of organizing interviews and portrait photos, Abel discussed how her job changed over the years as the rise in college athletics transformed the university and the city and how she went from hoping more people covered the Utes in the 1980s and ’90s to the SID department dealing with loads of reporters on a daily basis.