CHAPTER 1 PIONEERS AND TRAILBLAZERS The clock is winding down The newspaper editor wants the reporter to get reactions from players and coaches after the game The other reporters stream into the locker room when the game ends But one of them is stopped at the door This reporter can't go inside because she's a woman Sounds crazy doesn't it Today's sports media is filled with women in key roles at all levels from editing and writing to reporting and producing television broadcasts But that wasn't always the case It wasn't so long ago that women were outsiders in the media world clearing hurdles and fighting battles their male counterparts never dreamed of facing Female sports journalists have been around for more than a century even if there were not very many of them at first Judith Cary Waller 4 It's no longer unusual for a woman to be a sports reporter But that wasn't always the case
known as the First Lady of Radio started her broadcast career in 1922 when she was hired to run the radio station WGU later known as WMAQ in Chicago She was the first station manager of the city's second ever radio station Waller produced the first play by play radio broadcast of a college football game in 1924 when the University of Chicago beat Brown University 19 7 Then she pursued the idea of putting Major League Baseball MLB games on the air too Chicago Cubs home games were broadcast on WMAQ starting in 1926 During World War II 1939 1945 a shift took place in the workforce Before the war it wasn't common for women to work outside the home But with men serving in the armed forces many women began taking their place to keep the country running During this time Mary Garber launched her sports journalism career in Winston Salem North Carolina She filled in for the sports editor of the Twin City Sentinel when he joined the US Navy in 1944 Covering sports was a man's world so Garber often had to sit with players wives in the crowd instead of in the press box She faced 7 Baseball legend Ted Williams meets with a group of reporters all male in the Boston Red Sox locker room in 1942
