Women Making Presence Felt In Sports Media

DALLAS - The biggest news about women in sports journalism: There is no big news. Dog bites man.

Women with notebooks are commonplace in locker room. Not numerous, but commonplace. Jaws no longer drop.

Women rattle off scores on ``SportsCenter.'' Yankee Stadium did not crumble. Football, as we know it, did not end.

``We've gone from being women sports writers to sports writers who are women,'' said Christine Brennan, a Washington Post reporter and president of the Association for Women in Sports Media.

The organization - its acronym AWSM is pronounced ``awesome,'' and it's funny that they used a sports writing cliche - began its third annual meeting Saturday at the Hyatt Regency.

While AWSM still must deal occasionally with closed locker-room doors - that means you, Notre Dame and the New York Giants - the big issues of equality are behind it. Separate but equal is obsolete in the locker room.

As with all causes, however, the issues don't go away. They change. Women hold few positions of power and virtually no high-profile positions.

It has taken this long to be accepted. Few women are asked any longer if they took their jobs just to see naked athletes. That, to them, is a victory.

``This is not sexy, erotic or glamorous,'' said Jane Leavy, a former Washington Post reporter whose recently published novel, ``Squeeze Play,'' is about a woman covering a major league baseball team. ``This is a job. That's the only reason anyone goes in the locker room.''

In 1978, Time Inc. sued major league baseball because a Sports Illustrated reporter had been denied access to the Yankees' locker room during the World Series. Now, the media directors of the American and National leagues are named Phyllis and Katy, respectively.

``I long for the day when it's not such a big deal,'' said Robin Roberts, a ``SportsCenter'' anchor for ESPN.

The numbers indicate that day is coming, slowly but steadily. AWSM has approximately 375 members. Brennan suspects another 100 or so female sports writers work in print media. That's not many in a country with 1,800 daily newspapers. But, she said, it's tenfold more than a decade ago.

And more are coming. AWSM members funded a $1,000 college scholarship out of their own pockets this year. The group received 31 applications from female collegians.

``I was thrilled,'' Brennan said. ``Thirty-one this year alone want to get into the business.''

The employment percentage is no higher on television. ESPN has five women on camera and is applauded by one network executive for its ``vision.'' ABC has three. CBS two. NBC one.

The same network executive can name the cities where local stations employ women in sports: Denver, Kansas City, San Antonio, Austin, Charleston, S.C. . . .

``It's very difficult in TV,'' said John A. Walsh, managing editor at ESPN. ``Very few people remember a byline, whereas I think a woman does have to prove herself on TV. It makes it a more difficult challenge.''

Progress has been made, but women still cover only certain venues. More women cover tennis and golf than football and basketball. Women columnists are rare. Sports Illustrated has three female writers on a 30-person staff.

The decisions are made by males. Author Grace Lichtenstein, in her review of ``Squeeze Play'' in the Post, said the book reveals ``a dirty little secret'' of sports journalism.

``The secret is, women make better sportswriters than men,'' Lichtenstein said. They ``don't come to sports writing with false illusions about knowing baseball better than the players. They ask better questions, probe more sensitive areas than run, catch and throw.''

Leavy recalls this review with delight. Yet she had her protagonist, A.B. Berkowitz, sleep with one of the players on her beat. This is an AWSM sin.

``This is fiction. She's not me,'' Leavy said. ``She's not based on anybody. I chose to have her do it for specific literary reasons, not sociological ones.''

Much of Berkowitz's world rings true. For instance, she has a male boss. Women sports editors are nearly non-existent. The biggest newspaper with a female running the sports department is in Champaign, Ill.

Terry Taylor is deputy sports editor of The Associated Press. She is second-in-command of the vast AP sports operation. Nearly everybody in the newspaper business uses AP. Taylor is highly visible, even if much of her mail is addressed ``Mr.'' (Note: She throws the ``Mr.'' mail out.)

Taylor gets a job offer every other month.

``The AP is sick and tired of me being approached,'' she said, laughing.

Such newspapers as The New York Times, Seattle Times, Boston Globe and Washington Post have or had female assistant sports editors in the past year. They are not easy to keep.

``Editors would like to hire them, but the candidates aren't there,'' said Steve Doyle, president of the AP Sports Editors. He added that editors have begun to realize that ``their staff needs to reflect the demographics of the readers.''

Women read the sports pages. They watch sports on television. The women in front of the camera no longer are hired purely for their looks. They must appeal to the viewer, same as a man.

Phyllis George, who came to CBS Sports in the mid-1970s carrying her Miss America scepter, now appears in the meat section of your supermarket. She sells chicken. Roberts, the ESPN anchor, worked in radio and television in five cities, from Hattiesburg, Miss., to Atlanta, before going to ESPN last year.

``Sometimes I felt when I was hired, I felt like the person who did the hiring was very frightened,'' Roberts said. ``They didn't know how the public would react. And the public was always very encouraging. The public seemed to me to be ahead of some of the management people.''

In television, there are no female play-by-play reporters. There are no female producers or directors in the major sports. Leandra Riley, a former ESPN reporter, is the back-up play-by-play announcer for New Jersey Nets cable telecasts.

Riley performed credibly on the air, even if the Nets (17-65), the NBA's worst team, didn't. It may take such ``angles,'' as Riley referred to them, for women to get high-profile jobs. But they will get them on their merits, not their looks.

``There is a growing acceptance of women who know their sports,'' said ESPN's Walsh. ``When they know their stuff, it goes a long way . . . There are opportunities. All they have to do is apply and get moving.''