I Give You The ''First Lady Of Sports Commentary''
Phyllis became the first pioneer female sportscaster in America co-anchoring the popular Emmy Award winning "NFL Today Show" on CBS with Brent Musberger and Irv Cross from 1975- 1984. She interviewed some of the greatest sports figures in the world. She also co-hosted three Super Bowl broadcasts and six Rose Bowl Parades. She was the first female co-host of "Candid Camera". In 1985 she became the co-anchor of the "CBS Morning News" broadcast once again interviewing some of the great newsmakers in the world. Ms. George created and hosted two prime-time shows on TNN: "The Phyllis George Specials" and "Spotlight With Phyllis George". She interviewed high profile people in all walks of life - sports, news, politics, business, entertainment... Phyllis also hosted her own show on TNN called "Woman's Day TV with Phyllis George".
By Jessica Quiroli
On April 2nd 1975 Commissioner of Baseball Bowie Kuhn sent out a letter he wrote to the general managers of all major league baseball teams, rallying them to maintain a “unified stand” against allowing female sports writer’s into major league clubhouses.
Perhaps Kuhn could not imagine Sports Illustrated, the male sports fans’ bible, would be behind the fight to change the playing field for female sports journalists. Reporter Melissa Ludtke was the catalyst for the crucial change. Up to that point women such as Ludtke were left standing outside the sacred locker room doors after games, just hoping a player would come out to talk to them.
In the 1978 civil case Melissa Ludtke and Time Inc. v. Bowie Kuhn it stated, “Defendants admit that accredited male sports reporters may enter the locker room after a ball game for the purpose of interviewing ballplayers and that such fresh-off-the-field interviews are important to the work of sports reporters.”
Time, Inc. filed the lawsuit for equal access and eventually it was found to be “unconstitutional” to ban women from locker rooms. Women were allowed post game access as long as they acted in a “professional” manner, insinuating female sports reporters had ulterior motives for wanting access to locker rooms.
The controversial case in 1978 led to a victory for women in sports media.
It recently marked thirty years since Bowie Kuhn sent out his bold memo. How much have things really changed for female sportswriters entering the inner sanctum of male professional sports?
“We’re infiltrating the last totally male-dominated businesses in the world-sports,” said Joanne C. Gerstner, President of The Association for Women in Sports Media. Gerstner, herself an experienced sports reporter for the Detroit Pistons and Tigers also says, “I would like to see the change of pace go faster. But it’s moving along.”
The press box was a place of combat itself in the early days. In the 1940’s, according to Pamela Creedon’s 1994 book “Women, Media and Sport”, it was a place of, “all out war,” between male and female sports writers. You had a battle of the sexes amid athletic competition over who should have the right to cover the games of ball. Sports editor and reporter Mary Garber, “The Dean of Women Sportswriters”, was often put in the wives seating area, barred from sitting with the other male reporters in the press area.
Coaches, players, baseball officials, and fellow journalists can’t shut women out any longer. But the battle for equality is far from over in the “last totally male-dominated business.”
Today “women make up approximately 13% percent of sports departments”, as reported in Leah Etling’s 2002 study, “An Uphill Climb”. Some might say the number is a reflection of the differences in interests between men and women. Beat writer Jennifer Wielgus of the Bucks County Courier Times (a newspaper in the Philadelphia area) said, “The majority of sportswriters are male and probably always will be.” But according to Etling’s study, “Sports journalism departments have generally been reluctant to hire women for their desks.”
Another estimate Etling uncovered is that, “less than 6% of the Associated Press Sports Editors are women.”
Wielgus said,” Proportionally, there never will be as many women who want to be sportswriters as there are men who want to be.”
For women like Wielgus who do want to be sportswriters, the reality of people’s attitudes can be eye-opening. “Just the other day,” she explained, “someone called from one of our local high schools and asked, ‘Why do you always send women to cover our football games?”
Women passionately pushed to make their mark in sports journalism in the 1970’s and on into the 80’s as equal rights for women in the workplace became a centerpiece of those decades; but in the supposedly liberated 1990’s there were glaring reminders sexism still existed toward female sports writers.
In 1984 Claire Smith, a Philadelphia sportswriter and now Assistant Sports Editor at the Philadelphia Inquirer, was physically removed from the San Diego Padres clubhouse after they refused to abide by their earlier, “assurances that the teams that still did not abide by league rules would come the post season”, said Smith. She says that it wasn’t until newly hired commissioner Peter Ueberroth was hired that all clubhouses were opened to, “properly credentialed reporters from that day forward.” But the problems did not stop there. In 1990, Boston Herald sportswriter Lisa Olson was covering the New England Patriots. Olson was subjected to the worst abuse against a female reporter in a locker room ever recorded.
While Olson tried in vain to do her job one particular day she was relentlessly and verbally taunted by some of the players. Afterward fines were issued by the National Football League to make it clear the behavior was intolerable.
In 1992 Sacramento Bee beat writer Sue Fornoff was covering the Oakland A’s but received little cooperation from Dave Kingman. Kingman refused to speak with her in the locker room and created an even bigger issue by refusing to talk to reporters if she was in the room. Other reporter’s professional duties were then compromised.
At an away-game in Kansas City in April Fornoff was given a message of sorts when she received a neatly wrapped box. Upon opening the box she noticed something moving beneath the tissue paper. It was a rat with a tag around its neck reading, “My name is Sue.” The finger was pointed at Kingman, who was fined and told he’d be released immediately if anything like that happened again.
Since then, it has been an ongoing effort on the part of sports officials to make the situation comfortable, for both athletes and female reporters in locker rooms and clubhouses. Emily Badger, a sports reporter at the Florida Sentinel since 2002, said, “I cover a program that doesn’t have an open locker room.” The fact that many sports teams are operating this way has certainly made the situation more comfortable for everyone involved. Badger says however that players have, “outright asked why I think I should be allowed in.”
Women are not going to be viewed any differently when they enter a locker room of naked men who feel the clubhouse is exclusive to men, and the male/female dynamic will never be completely extinguished in that environment; the most women can ask is to be treated fairly and given the chance to do their job. Wielgus for one sees some progress mainly due to strength in numbers.
She said, “There is definitely increasing diversity.” But, she continued, “Part of that is because of minority hiring quotas. I hate to say.”
Quotas present a whole other issue for women aspiring to be sports writers on equal footing with their male counterparts. Wielgus explains when she applied for her current job the ad read, “Women and minorities are encouraged to apply.” It isn’t entirely clear how much the use of quotas is responsible for the rising number of female sports writers. If the conditions have improved for women in the locker room, the process of getting hired might be the next thing in need of tweaking.
While quotas ensure women get a place at the boys table of sports writing it’s not a merit- based means of employing them. It is also worth wondering how many qualified women are being turned away for jobs just because a quota has been filled.
In the Associated Press Sports Editors ethics guidelines it states, “Assignments should be made on merit, without regard for race or gender.” Quotas, however, have been a necessary tool in women getting a shot at covering sports at newspapers.
There is still some fighting to do in order for women to be hired on merit alone.
“I am torn on this topic,” said Badger. “I have benefited from my status as a minority. At the same time this motivates me to want to prove that I have the talent and ability to warrant every opportunity given to me.”
According to Badger those opportunities are not given in some newsrooms she’s been in. “I’ve seen departments that clearly have no interest and make no effort to find and develop qualified women. This is a problem.” She also added, “It’s not enough to hire a woman to fill your quota, trust her with a beat that your paper values.”
If a higher number of women were in more authoritative positions, perhaps things would improve on that front. Gerstner said, “We need to get more women in positions of power: on-air, editors, and columnists. It’s not enough to be in the business. We need to get some say.” In a 1997 MSU State News article, Gerstner, then a Lansing State Journal sports reporter was quoted as saying, “The battle ground is having a female sports editor. There are very few of them.” Claire Smith was one of the few female baseball writers in the 1980’s and is one of the very few female sports editors today. However, she went onto say, “I was not in the first wave, or even the second, third or tenth. Braver women walked through those doors long before I did.”
While it’s difficult to nail down the exact number of women in sports journalism the Associated Press of Sports Editors are approximately, “six percent” women, said APSE president Jerry Mico in The American Journalism Review.
“It takes time to make a societal shift,” Gerstner said, “and that’s what we’re doing.” Just a few months after speaking with Gerstner, in an issue of The AWSM newsletter Gerstner reported numerous women had contacted her about rampant sexism and abuse in their sports departments by male counterparts. The women were too frightened to go public and wanted to remain anonymous out of fear of losing their jobs. Gerstner, as always a champion of this cause, promised to do all she could do be of help to the women.
While the relationship between athletes and the media has gotten far more strained over the years, women’s experiences separate them from men in the field even now. Female sports journalists remain on their own unique path and still face the question, “Why do you think you should be allowed in?” and still face internal abuses that often go unreported.
Mary Garber would not be forced to sit with the wives now. And the faces in the press box are more diverse. Female sports journalists have indeed advanced since the 1978 Ludtke decision, but clearly they are just rounding the bases.
They’ve not yet made it home.
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