Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 25, 1993 TAG: 9303250186
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CHRIS STEUART STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
FEMALE SPORTSWRITER PITCHES JOURNALISM TO TECH AUDIENCE
A speech by Washington Post sportswriter Christine Brennan without the mention of women in the locker room would be about as anticlimactic as a Super Bowl that ends in a tie.Brennan, who in 1981 became the first full-time female sports reporter at the Miami Herald, didn't disappoint her audience of about 60 at Virginia Tech's Squires Student Center on Tuesday night in conjunction with Women's Week activities at the university.
"When you have a women who happens to be a sportswriter, the conversation inevitably turns to the locker room," she said.
Using Miami Dolphin quarterback Dan Marino as an example, she said, "Men have a wonderful way of pulling their pants on and then taking their towel off.
"It has nothing to do with privacy or seeing naked bodies. It's an issue simply of access and allowing reporters to do their job. It should be equal for all reporters. Just carry big 8-by-10 notebooks; and eye contact is very important."
Brennan, 34, has opened more than locker-room doors for women in sports writing by setting milestones along her career path, which started with playing sports in her yard while she was growing up in Toledo, Ohio, as a self-professed tomboy.
"I played with dolls sometimes," she said. "But most of the time I was in the yard playing sports and beating up on my friends. And I have written a full page in my diary every day since 1973. So, I have always had a real love for daily writing."
In 1984, she was hired to cover the National Football League for The Washington Post and eventually become the first, and remains the only, woman to cover the Washington Redskins. She also covers the Olympics and other international sporting events.
She turned her discussion to issues of interest to her audience, made up mostly of journalism students and professors - and her father, who joined her on the ride from Washington.
"The opportunities for women and minorities in the newspaper business are greater than ever before," she said.
She said newspapers are more reflective of the population, especially in sports. "You have to have women and blacks covering sports," she said.
Brennan estimated that 15 years ago there were no more than 50 women covering sports in the United States and now there are about 700.
"Behind every successful woman in sports writing there is a man who had courage enough to give her the chance and push her along," she said. "Don't be afraid to try."
Brennan gave some sobering advice to the male and female student journalists in the audience. She said they had to work hard because colleges are turning out the same amount of journalists as they were 20 years ago, but there are fewer papers to absorb them.
"You don't just wander into this business. Weekends aren't really weekends anymore and you work until 2 or 3 in the morning sometimes," she said. "I don't mean to discourage you, but it's a tough world."
Brennan said that when she covered the Redskins she was on call 24 hours a day.
"You certainly don't do it for the pay. Doctors and lawyers get more pay," Brennan said. "You have to love it. It's got to beat inside of you."
But Brennan's advice to the prospective journalists wasn't completely somber.
"I couldn't be happier to get paid to do what most people pay to do," she said. "But I'm not sitting there with a beer in one hand and a bag of popcorn in the other."