Playing Ball with the Boys: The Rise of Women in the World of Men's Sports
240
Playing Ball with the Boys: The Rise of Women in the World of Men's Sports
240eBook
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Overview
Former ESPN news anchor Betsy Ross fills this void with Playing Ball with the Boys, a fascinating, behind-the-scenes look at the emerging role that women play in sports broadcasting and reporting as well as in the business of sports. Ross interviews a number of the biggest names--from Kolber and Kremer to USA Today columnist Christine Brennan and Lesley Visser and many others--who offer first-hand accounts of the struggles and the triumphs of women playing what has always been a man's game.
She provides a history of this unique facet of the sports world, from pioneering female newspaper sports reporters to the celebrated breakthrough into televised sports by former Miss America Phyllis George, who is interviewed in the book. Ross covers the controversial moments, from locker room confrontations between players and female reporters to the infamous sideline interview in which Joe Namath attempted to kiss Suzy Kolber during a live broadcast.
Readers also learn of women who played pro sports on male teams or coached men's teams. They meet a woman who runs a professional baseball team and another who is a team doctor.
Through this tale, Ross weaves her own story, recalling how she went from a small town in Indiana to the anchor's chair at the largest sports network in the world, ESPN. She explains what it's like for a woman to succeed in the male-dominated world of sports broadcasting.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781578604616 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Clerisy Press |
| Publication date: | 10/25/2010 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 240 |
| File size: | 2 MB |
About the Author
She continues to be involved in sports broadcasting as play-by-play anchor for women’s college basketball for ESPN, Fox Sports and other national and regional outlets, and as a sports reporter for Cincinnati’s FOX 19. She is the host of a weekly sports interview segment, “The Front Row,” that airs Saturday mornings on WVXU-FM, the NPR affiliate in Cincinnati. She also teaches a master’s level course, Sports and PR, at Xavier University. She is active in a variety of organizations, including the Special Olympics, and the Greater Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky Women’s Sports Association.
Ross is a native of Connersville, Indiana, received her bachelor’s degree at Ball State University and master’s degree at the University of Notre Dame. She is on the board of the Ball State University Foundation. She has received the Sagamore of the Wabash award, the highest civilian award given to Indiana residents, and is a Kentucky Colonel.
Read an Excerpt
Introduction
“What a weekend! On the sidelines for high school football Friday night, sideline reporter for the University of Cincinnati Saturday night, and in the press box for the Bengals on Sunday. Thanks, Mom, for teaching me to be a sports fan.”
My Facebook entry, September 14, 2009
So here I am, getting ready to work the sidelines for the University of Cincinnati-South East Missouri State football broadcast during the 2009 season, and I have college football on the TV in the background.
First game I watch, I see my former ESPN colleague, Cara Capuano, on the sidelines of the SEC game of the week. Then I flip over and see another ex-ESPN colleague, my buddy Pam Ward, back in the booth this season doing play by play for the Michigan State game.
Cool, I thought, all three of us working games on this big college football Saturday.
And it would have been cool, if it hadn't been so ironic.
Because just the day before, I talked with Gayle Sierens.
Who, you might ask?
For those of us who grew up watching sports, Gayle Sierens is right up there with Neil Armstrong when it comes to blazing trails. The difference: While Armstrong was followed on the moon by 11 other men, Gayle Sierens hasn’t been followed by anyone. She is the only one to do what she did: Be the first woman to call play-by-play for an NFL game.
I interviewed her for my radio sports show as part of our coverage of the beginning of the NFL season, but also because I was interested in how she got the opportunity in the first place, the reaction to her doing the game, and her eventual decision to give up sports for news. Good call on her part, because she's been on the air at WFLA-TV in Tampa as a top news anchor for more than 30 years now.
But part of our discussion included Gayle's thoughts on when another woman would have the opportunity she had to call an NFL game. We mentioned Pam, Lesley Visser, who, during the 2009 pre-season became the first woman to do color for a televised NFL game, Andrea Kremer and the like who are more than qualified.
"I think it will happen sooner rather than later," Sierens said.
Could be, especially with the proliferation of games broadcasts on cable and webcasts on the internet offering more opportunities than ever for anyone interested in play by play, not just women, to get into broadcasting. But it takes years for men, or women, to work their way up the play by play ladder to make it to a network or cable level.
That doesn’t mean that women haven’t made strides in the sports field, and not just in media. Dr. Michelle Andrews was the first team doctor in Major League Baseball (for the Baltimore Orioles). Kari Rumfield is the general manager for a professional baseball team in the Frontier League. Brigid DeVries is one of, by last count, only three women to be the commissioners of state high school athletic associations.
All of them have unique stories of how they got where they are and, before that, how they were drawn into sports in the first place. All share one trait, however: A passion for sports. Whether they played the game or were fans, all are incredibly dedicated to sports, and had support at a young age—support from parents, from coaches, from a mentor—to follow that passion.
Remember that the next time you’re tempted to miss one of your kids’ games or run the other way when you see a volunteer coach come your way to ask you to be an assistant. You never know when a young girl’s life will find its passion because you took the time to throw her batting practice. It happened with the women you’ll meet here. It will happen with the next generation of young girls and women who choose sports as their passion—and their profession.
###
Playing Ball with the Boys:
How Women Have Changed Sports
Chapter 1
“This is SportsCenter”
“Congratulations, Mrs. Ross, you have a boy!”
Hearing that, my mother immediately broke into tears.
Dr. Gregg took a closer look. “Oops, no I was wrong, you have another daughter.”
That daughter was me.
Now, whether that pronouncement at my birth had any affect on my profession of choice, I’m not sure, but I do know that growing up, my tastes trended more toward baseball than baby dolls—a tomboy, in the vernacular of the day. Not that my parents didn’t try to make me more ladylike. One Christmas, I discovered a doll and baby carriage under the tree. I think they’re still sitting in the corner of the basement. After that it was cork guns and volleyballs and basketballs. And my parents were wise enough never to dissuade me from what I really enjoyed.
I grew up outside of Connersville, Indiana, in southeastern Indiana, in a rural area where every home had a basketball hoop and the Cincinnati Reds were the team of choice. I was the typical kid who would fall asleep with the transistor radio under my pillow and would carry it with me in the grocery store when the Reds were playing on Saturday afternoons. And more often than not, someone would ask me what the score of the game was.
Since there were few kids my age to play sports with, and my sister, 11 years older than I, was already away in college, my mother was, more often than not, drafted as my playing partner. While Dad was at work at the factory, my mother would pitch batting practice to me or catch the football.
She was no stranger to sports herself—in fact, she would brag about her crooked right pinky, bent at the slightest outside angle, from a softball that came in just a little too fast during recess at Orange School. So even though her knees hurt and her back was tired, she’d often take a few minutes to keep me occupied in the back yard.
One time, we were playing one-on-one basketball in the back yard, and Mom had the ball. She went up for a shot, I reached up to block her, and my hand slammed into her nose. Of course, any time you hit the nose, it gushes like a Texas oil strike. I was distraught, but it turned out there was no damage. And in telling the story in later years, I just explained, “Well, she was driving the lane, what else was I supposed to do?” And my basketball friends completely understood.
Now, all of this happened before Title IX, which has given countless young girls the opportunity to play sports in high school and college. So I couldn’t understand why I couldn’t play Little League baseball with the boys, when I played softball at recess with them during school. Or why I couldn’t participate in Punt, Pass and Kick competitions when I’d play touch football with the guys during lunch hour. (one of my badges of honor in the seventh grade at Garrison Creek School was having my name written in the back of the grade book—reserved only for serious infractions—for playing touch football after our teacher, Mr. Fowler, told me I couldn’t).
So I did the next best thing—I wrote about sports. I was very fortunate when I was a youngster in that I knew at a fairly early age I wanted to write. I attended a one-room school in our rural area--two of them, in fact, Nulltown for grades 1-4 and Garrison Creek for grades 5-8--before I went to Connersville High School. I was first published in the sixth grade when I wrote a letter to the editor of the local paper. Now, that was pretty heady stuff, seeing your name in print when you’re 10 years old!
But that was enough to give me the writing bug. Well, that, and, when I was watching the news, I noticed that President Lyndon Johnson called NBC News reporter Nancy Dickerson by her first name at news conferences. Wow, that’s cool, I thought. Presidents know your name if you’re a reporter.
So I decided that was what I wanted to do. I didn’t know much about the process of journalism, past what I read in the paper every day and saw on television. But one of our assignments Mr. Fowler handed out at Garrison Creek changed my life. The assignment was, interview someone. Now, you could interview your friend, your brother, your parents, anyone, and that’s what most kids did in my class (all seven of us!). But I decided to interview Candace Murray, the author of the daily “O Yez O Yez” ‘heard about town’ column that was published in the Connersville News-Examiner newspaper.
So Mom made the appointment, we waited for Dad to get home from work so he could drive us the seven miles up to town, and Candace waited for us at the News-Examiner office so I could do my interview. It’s funny, I don’t remember a whole lot about the interview itself, but I remember the smells of a newsroom—paper mixed with newsprint—and the stacks of chaos on everyone’s desk—old newspapers, letters, copy paper, all of it. I thought it was great.
She gave us a quick tour of the newsroom, and the printing area in the back—those huge printing machines like you see in the old movies churning out full pages of newspaper. It was fascinating. And I knew that was what I wanted to do.
Now, what if she said no to the interview? Or if she had given me only a half hour of her time instead of staying late at work? I might have been a veterinarian (my second choice of profession) instead of going into journalism. So to this day, I thank Candace Murray for helping me choose journalism—and if a student wants to come by the office for an interview, or to shadow me for a day. I always say yes. You never know when you’ll have an influence on someone’s life.
So, I took the usual journalism paths that we all do, working on the high school newspaper and yearbook, then moving on to Ball State University, partly because of its great journalism program, partly because my sister went there and I was familiar with the campus. Admittedly, I wasn’t big on working on the Ball State Daily News campus newspaper—with the journalism classes themselves and with extra classes to get my teaching certificate I was busy enough, with dreams of taking what I learned and becoming an investigative reporter for the Chicago Sun-Times.
But again, one seemingly innocuous decision made a huge difference in my professional life. Since I was working on a teaching certificate, I had to do one quarter of student teaching. I was planning to do it at my old high school, like most people did, so I could live at home and save expenses. As we were setting up my student teaching schedule, my counselor said, “Well, you can do two classes in journalism, and two in English.” Made sense, since English was my minor, but hardly my favorite.
“Tell you what,” I said. “I really have no plans to teach English. Is there anything else you can give me to teach along with journalism?”
“Well, Connersville High has a radio/tv program,” he said. “Do you want to teach two classes in radio and television?”
“Sure,” I said. How hard can it be? I thought.
Well, let me tell you, it was harder than I dreamed. Since I had zero, zip, classes in radio and television at Ball State and the campus broadcast facilities were not necessarily the best (this was the pre-David Letterman Communication and Media Building days), it never crossed my mind to take broadcast classes. So I’d study whatever the topic was the day before I had to teach it, and do video projects right along with the students.
And I had a blast.
I learned to shoot a video camera, edit, I learned everything about a television studio, writing for TV, the whole shebang. And I thought it was the coolest thing ever. And I also thought, “Great, it’s my last quarter of my senior year in college and I finally figure out what I want to do.”
So, I graduate, land a job teaching journalism and advising for the yearbook and newspaper at Merrillville, Indiana, high school, but I never got the television bug out of my brain. I taught one year, then joined the staff at the South Bend Tribune, a terrific newspaper that still serves as the paper of record for much of north central and northwestern Indiana. The job at the newspaper returned me to my journalism roots, but also gave me access to start work on a master’s degree at the University of Notre Dame and an opportunity to get the experience in television I needed in order to pursue a TV career. And it was a terrific place to get broadcast experience, since at that time Notre Dame owned the NBC affiliate in South Bend, and the station was right on campus. Instead of studying at a campus facility, we got to work at a commercial studio. So I worked my college classes around my work schedule at the Trib.
While I was working at the newspaper, I also got to pursue my passion for sports. As anyone in journalism knows, sports departments are historically under-staffed. So I would volunteer, on Friday nights, to cover high school basketball and football for the Tribune’s sports section. The guys in the sports department were more than willing to give me a chance, and were thankful for the help. As terrific as that opportunity was, that also was my first rude awakening at the reality of women covering sports.
Usually, when I went to high school football games, I’d be able to find a corner of the press box where I could sit and watch the game. But one Friday night at South Bend Clay High School, when I made my way up to the football press box, I was turned away. “Nope, no room up here,” the P.A. announcer said, even though there was at least four spaces open to his right.
I tried not to notice the slight smile he gave one of his buddies as I thanked him, walked down the bleachers and stood by the fencing that separated the stands from the field. And that’s where I covered the game. I got the job done and the story filed, but I’ll never forget that night. Since then, I’ve talked to many women who also say they’ve been kicked out of press boxes, so at least I know I wasn’t the only one. And I’ve been nudged out of press rows since then. But on that night, it didn’t make me feel any better to know that not everyone had my parents’ opinion that I could do whatever I wanted.
Eventually I got my master’s in Communication Arts from the University of Notre Dame, and landed my first television job at WSJV-TV, then the ABC affiliate for the South Bend-Elkhart market. And even that job search had its own twists and turns. As I got closer to graduation and started looking for a job in television news, I thought I would have it made: A print reporter looking to switch to television? What news director wouldn’t want to hire me with that kind of experience?
Well, as it turned out, not many. Because it didn’t matter what kind of journalist you were, (journalist with a capital ‘J’ as we liked to call ourselves) news directors wanted television experience, not newspaper. So I went through months of interviews in area television markets before I got a call from a news director in Fort Wayne. Could I send an updated resume tape?
Of course. Now I just needed to get another tape together. I had just made one at the station on campus, so I couldn’t impose on them to make another one. So out of the blue I called the news director for WSJV, introduced myself (he was a Ball State alum so I used that as my ‘in’) and asked if I could come over and do a quick anchor desk read for a resume tape.
He agreed, so a couple of days later I came in during their afternoon down time, read a few stories at the desk, then did a pretend ‘standup’ close for a reporter package. When I was finished, the news director, Phil Lengyel, called me into his office.
“Do you have a reason that you want to go to Fort Wayne to work?” he asked.
“No,” I said. “It’s just a lead I have on a reporter’s job.”
“Well,” he continued, “we might have something coming up here soon, so let me keep you posted on our openings here.”
Sure enough, a couple of weeks later there was an opening, Phil called me, and I started the Monday after my Thursday graduation from Notre Dame. I had made it into television although, with some reluctance, using my real name.
You see, Betsy Ross is, indeed, my God-given, Mom-given name. Not Elizabeth, not Beth, it’s Betsy. And it’s not like their was some premeditated scheme to give me this name—as I always say, if my parents wanted a daughter named Betsy, they would have given that name to my older sister, Jeanne. In fact, the nurse supposedly told my mother after three days of my being in the hospital without a name, “You can’t call her ‘Hey, You’ all her life.” So Betsy came from somewhere, and my middle name, Melina, came from a baby book. (pronounced like Melinda without the “D,” not the Greek pronunciation of Me-lee-na)
So, switching professions, I thought this was the perfect opportunity to change my name, just like all hot-shot news anchors did—so I thought. So I lobbied Phil to let me change my name. To Jennifer Edwards. Don’t know why. I thought it was a cool name, very un-ethnic, again, just like all the other big anchors.
“Are you crazy?” he said. “You’ve got a name that people won’t forget. You gotta keep it.” And so I did. And Phil, you were right. Even though I have to endure countless bad jokes, it does give me pleasure when someone comes up with the “Are you the one who made the flag?” comment, I can say, “No I’m the one who spent five years at ESPN.” That shuts ‘em up.
From WSJV-TV I headed home to the Cincinnati area and WCPO-TV, then moved up the interstate to WTHR in Indianapolis, got my first full-time sports anchoring position at SportsChannel America in New York, then headed back to Cincinnati at WLWT-TV. And while (except for SportsChannel America) each television job was as a news anchor, I used the same method as I did at the Tribune to keep my hand in sports—I’d volunteer to help out the sports department. That was how I was able to put a sports resume reel together for SportsChannel America, and eventually how I was able to catch the attention of ESPN.
Because I was working for the NBC affiliate in Cincinnati, and because NBC had the rights to the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, our station was really promoting the upcoming summer games. And, as fate would have it, we had an unusual number of area athletes involved in the Olympic trials, and eventually, the games. Two members of the gold medal-winning “Magnificent Seven” women’s gymnastics team were from Cincinnati, as was one of the coaches. Swimmers, divers, runners, shooters, rowers, you name the sport, we had an athlete competing for a spot at the Olympics. So I lobbied hard to cover their stories. That led to an opportunity to work for NBC NewsChannel, the news feed that goes to affiliate stations, on Olympic coverage. And, eventually, I got to go with our sports crew to Atlanta to cover the Olympics themselves.
At the same time ESPN was getting ready to launch ESPNews, a 24-hour news channel specifically for highlights and scores. They were looking for someone who knew sports, and who could anchor in half-hour blocks. Considering that most sports anchors were on the air for only about 3-4 minutes for their nightly sports reports, having someone like a news anchor who was used to anchoring for longer periods of time, and who also had sports knowledge, would be a perfect fit.
So my agent started making calls and sending my Olympics tapes to Bristol, and after the Games I headed to the Worldwide Leader for an interview. Now, this wasn’t the first time I’d been to ESPN headquarters. When I was working at SportsChannel America, ESPN was getting ready to launch ESPN 2 and I interviewed back in 1990 for a position on the new network. So I was familiar with the routine—meet everyone, sit down with a producer in the afternoon, write copy then go on the set and anchor highlights.
Except the circumstances were very different on this interview for ESPNews. As schedules would have it, I was there on the day of the funeral for ESPN anchor Tom Mees. He was one of the first anchors for ESPN when it signed on the air in 1979, and was still with the network when he drowned in a neighbor’s pool in nearby Southington, Connecticut. The shock was still apparent on everyone’s face, and while I didn’t have the chance to meet him, I heard wonderful stories about Tom on that day, and during the years I worked at ESPN.
Still, we all went through the motions, everyone was very nice, I did my anchor test, then couldn’t wait to get on the airplane back to Cincinnati. Whether it was the pall that hung over the newsroom that day, or whether it was the mess of the construction for the new ESPNews studio, I didn’t have a good feeling about the place. You know when you go into a job interview, you know in the first few minutes whether you think you’d fit in? I didn’t think I’d fit in. I knew I didn’t want to work there.
Of course, I was offered the job. I was to be one of the first wave of ESPNews anchors, being hired from across the country, to launch the new network.
And I said no.
I had no desire to move to Connecticut, my family and friends were all back in the Midwest, and I just couldn’t shake the unsettled feeling I had on that day of my interview. So I did the unthinkable—I said no to ESPN.
Until six months later, when I said yes.
What changed? Well, in television, as in any business, when bosses change, they bring in their own mangers and their own style. Our station, WLWT, was first rumored to be in line to be purchased by the network itself, which was another reason I didn’t want to leave for ESPN. The opportunity to work for an O & O (network owned and operated) station was tempting. But when that fell through and another purchaser took over, the new news director who came in had a “if it bleeds it leads” philosophy that didn’t necessarily fit into what I felt comfortable in doing.
So I called my agent. “Think ESPN might still be interested?” I asked.
They were. So in April of 1997, six months after the launch of ESPN, I was anchoring on ESPNews. I got a quick education in hockey, in soccer, in a lot of sports other than the football, basketball, baseball and golf I was used to covering. And as much as I thought I knew about sports, my knowledge paled in comparison to most of the folks around me. For a sports fan, it was heaven.
But for all the extra folks brought into ESPN to launch ESPNews, there were still only five females of the nearly 60 anchors for all the networks: Robin Roberts, Linda Cohn, Chris McKendry, Pam Ward and me. I still have a signed ESPN banner that I keep in my office with all five of our signatures on it. We weren’t numerous, but we were proud of what we did.
For someone like me who was plopped down in New England with no friends and family in the area, ESPN was, and is, a terrific place to work. ESPN not only hires people who are good at their jobs, but are good people. If you weren’t nice, if you weren’t cordial, if you weren’t respectful to your coworkers, you didn’t stay. They made sure of that. I got so used to guys holding doors open for me, that it was a shock when I went to the mall and the same thing didn’t happen there.
And it was a place where my writing skills were valued. It remains the only newsroom where I have worked that I wrote every word that I read. It may be more time-consuming, but that’s the only way for each of us anchors to put our own personalities into our writing. Let’s face it, it’d be silly for me to read something that Stuart Scott writes, and vice-versa. So I loved the opportunity to put my own style into my anchoring, something that, of course, is forbidden in straight news.
In fact, one of the best compliments I received in Bristol was from a producer who said after a show, “I can’t believe you ever anchored news.” That’s when I felt I finally arrived.
I’m often asked who were some of my more memorable interviews I conducted during my time there, and there were several. One was Pedro Martinez, when he was still with Montreal and had just won the Cy Young award. Despite his success, he knew he had become too pricy for the Expos to keep him, and he knew he would be leaving Montreal—but he didn’t know where. He was thrilled for the honor, but very apprehensive about his future and unsure what would happen next.
Another interview I remember was a satellite interview with Lance Armstrong after one of his early Tour de France wins. Just a bit of background: When these athletes do satellite interviews, they sit in one studio and the production crew around them dials up different anchors in different cities. But the satellite feed usually stays up live, while the new anchor is being dialed up for the next interview.
So, the Lance Armstrong feed comes up, he’s live on our monitors as he’s getting ready to do our interview. In the background I hear one of the producers say, “Next interview is with ESPN and Betsy Ross.”
“Betsy Ross,” Lance says. And I’m thinking, oh boy, here it comes, some lame comment about my name. “Made the flag, right?” he added. And then, to no one in particular, said, “Boy, there is nothing like riding those final miles at the Tour, and everyone has their American flags out, and they’re waving them as you go by, just seeing those flags make you so proud to be an American and know that those people support you. That’s the prettiest site around, to see that flag.”
I immediately became a Lance Armstrong fan.
One interview we did on set for ESPNews almost didn’t happen. It was when former Reds reliever and “Nasty Boy” Rob Dibble had just started with ESPN, and he, on occasion, would come on ESPNews to talk baseball. Now, what often was the case at the Worldwide Leader was that analysts, especially ex-players and coaches, would cut their teeth on ESPNews and then when they got good, they’d move over to ESPN.
Well, Rob had done his time on the News side and now was working for Baseball Tonight, but we had some extra time on ESPNews and asked the Baseball Tonight producer if Rob could come on the News set and give us a baseball preview.
“No, he doesn’t have time,” the producer said, blowing us off. “He can’t do it, I won’t even ask him.”
Well, okay, we thought, we’ll find something to fill the time.
About an hour later, Rob came over to our desks. “So what time do you want me on your show?” he asked the producer and me.
We thought you didn’t have time to do an interview, we explained.
“Nope, you guys gave me my start here at ESPN before they’d take me on Baseball Tonight, so I’ll always make time for you. Now, when do you want me in the studio?”
And I immediately became a Rob Dibble fan.
Speaking of fans, there’s always a bit of the ‘star struck’ factor around ESPN, mainly because of those famous “This is SportsCenter” promotions that are shot on the ESPN campus three or four times a year. It wasn’t unusual, when the production crew was on campus, to run into Pete Sampras in the cafeteria or Tiger Woods’ former caddy, Fluff, in the stairwell (I’ve done both). Or, to find yourself in a Bon Jovi video when the band was set up in the newsroom, shooting an “It’s My Life” video for the SportsCenter promos. I didn’t know the words to the song when we started. But after six hours of shooting, I knew it backwards and forwards.
But my closest brush with fame came when I was working the early morning shift to do SportsCenter updates on the 2002 Summer Olympics in Sydney. My day started around 3 a.m. but ended around 10 a.m. So when I shift was done this particular day, I headed to the cafeteria to get a cup of coffee. I walked in to see that tables and chairs had been moved to make way for a billiards table, and who would be standing next to it but Jeanette Lee, the “Black Widow.”
A bit of history here: If you watch any ESPN network at any hour of the day, you’re familiar with Jeanette Lee, who became a billiards star on ESPN 2 any time from 1 a.m. until 4 a.m. I used to watch Jeanette Lee any chance I could, because I was fascinated with how she could run a pool table. I had just purchased her book, and it was on my desk when I saw her in the cafeteria.
Maybe I can get the book and have her sign it, I thought, so I dashed across campus, grabbed the book, and went back to the caf, only to see that they had started shooting their promo. Bummer.
A couple of hours later, the field producer for the production company came into our cubicle area (I shared space with Trey Wingo) and asked if it was ok to move some chairs around, since they were going to be shooting a spot with Trey. He happened to glance and see my Jeanette Lee book on my desk.
“Hey, do you know that she’s here on campus? We just finished shooting a promo with her.”
“Yes, I ran over to the cafeteria, but you guys were already shooting, so I didn’t want to bother her,” I said.
“No bother, but I think she might be gone now,” he said. “Anyway, I’ll be back in a couple of hours to set up the shoot.”
No problem, I said, and went back to my computer.
Ten minutes later, the producer came back. “Hey, Betsy, want you to meet someone.”
And into my little humble cubicle, walked Jeanette Lee.
“Hi, how are you?” she said, offering a handshake.
I couldn’t think of a thing to say. I stumbled, I fumbled, I couldn’t put a sentence together. She saw her book on my desk and autographed it, gave me her business card, even gave me a gummi bear out of her candy bag. (True confession—I still have that gummi bear!) She could not have been nicer. She, and that producer, absolutely made my day.
**********
During my five years at ESPN I anchored NBA 2night, NHL 2night, weekend SportsCenters, Olympic coverage during the 2002 games and, of course, ESPNews. But my most memorable day on the desk was one that none of us will forget, September 11, 2001. I was working the morning-early afternoon shift that day, so I came in around 8 a.m. I was scheduled to fly back to Cincinnati that afternoon, so I was anxious to get the day done and get home for a long mid-week break. I was happy to see that the weather was sunny and clear in Connecticut—good flying weather.
I was in the newsroom, sitting at a desk watching the Today Show on our monitors, when the first reports came that a small plane had hit one of the Twin Towers. Those of us in the newsroom kind of giggled—gee, what pilot couldn’t see that big tower in front of him?
While the first reports of the size of the plane varied, we still just thought of it as a tragic accident, a news story for the New York area—until the second plane hit. And then we knew, it was much more than an accident.
As the minutes ticked by and we realized this was a story that would reach across all broadcast spectrums, the news editors and producers started to huddle around our desks. The reports continued—all flights grounded—as many as 10,000 body bags ordered for Lower Manhattan—the news became more dire as the morning went on.
That’s when we decided that, even though it was not a sports story, ESPN needed to acknowledge that we knew what was happening and we would have updates throughout the day. I went into our ESPNews studio and, broadcasting across all the ESPN networks, including international outlets, went back to my news anchor roots and reported what was happening. I stayed on the anchor desk until the 4 p.m. anchor came in.
It was one of the most surreal days I’ve ever had in broadcasting. I remember being shaken when I had to report the death of Jackie O, being emotional when I had to report that the major league baseball season was being cancelled. But this was just beyond anyone’s comprehension. As the morning went on, the news kept getting more grim: a third plane crashing into the Pentagon; the search for the fourth plane that eventually crashed in Somerset County, Pennsylvania. Every half hour, I’d broadcast live (since the networks were all in taped programming) updating the situation, encouraging viewers to turn to their local ABC affiliates, promising responses and statements regarding how this would affect the night’s sports schedules.
Through it all, I just remember repeating one phrase during my updates: “The apparent terrorist attack on the United States.” Who in the world would have thought those words would come out of any of our mouths? Eventually, of course, sports was suspended as the nation, and the world, tried to come to grips with this unspeakable tragedy. And that was the day that, for once, sports took a back seat to news at ESPN.
I didn’t know it at the time, but that day changed my life, as it did for so many people.
That day forced so many Americans to reassess their lives, their goals, their priorities. I was one of them. I had been at ESPN for nearly five years, had just signed a new contract, but I knew that my future wasn’t in Bristol. I was commuting every week from Cincinnati to Connecticut, I was tired of flying and knew that I needed to be closer to home to take care of my mother, who then was in her early 80s. So by the spring of 2002 I decided to come home to Cincinnati. It was time.
From that decision came Game Day Communications, a sports and events public relations company I started with my business partner, Jackie Reau. I still stay in sports broadcasting through freelance work, play-by-play gigs and radio interviews. But being at ESPN is every sports fan’s dream and one of the highlights of my career. Sure, I’ve heard and read stories about how the atmosphere there was not necessarily friendly to females, but I personally never felt it. I felt accepted as a sports anchor, and welcomed to the ESPN family. I still have close friends from my Bristol days, and I am grateful to the folks there for the opportunity to be part of the best sports operation on the planet.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Foreword Phyllis George xii
Introduction 1
Chapter 1 "This is SportsCenter" 5
How a girl from Indiana made it to ESPN
Chapter 2 It All Started on a Tennis Court 25
"My life, since I've been twelve years old, is about equal rights and opportunities for both men and women, girls and boys" Billie Jean King
Chapter 3 From Radio to TV, Women Change Sportscasting 41
"Some women love sports and get into television. Others love television and get into sports" Ann Liguori Lesley Visser
Chapter 4 Women in the Booth 59
"I think in order to be a trailblazer there has to be somebody else behind you on the trail" Gayle Sierens Pam Ward
Chapter 5 Women Sports Reporters 75
"If there are hurdles in your way, jump over them." Christine Brennan Selena Roberts
Chapter 6 A League of Their Own 87
"I think we need more women in powerful positions." Dr.Michelle Andrews Kari Rumfield Kim Ng
Chapter 7 The Business of Sports 109
"I like having women in charge." Tina Kunzer-Murphy Brigid DeVries Tonya Antonucci
Chapter 8 Following Your Passion 129
"You have to have the drive to tackle something a little bit bigger than you." Zayra Calderon Sue Enquist
Chapter 9 They Call Her Coach 141
"You can't be afraid of failure and not being able to achieve." T. Jean Dowell Bernadette Mattox
Chapter 10 Driving Forces 155
"There are just these stereotypes of what you're supposed to do." Kelley Earnhardt Janet Guthrie
Chapter 11 Playing Ball With the Boys: The Next Generation 173
"I think I'm a total product of Title IX-I'm a Title IX baby." Rebecca Lobo Ruth Riley
Afterword 183
Sources 186
About the Author 192