Photo courtesy of Keith Allison via Wikimedia Commons. Jane Gross believed that locker rooms showcased rarely seen camaraderie between teammates.
By Genevieve Zahner ’26
Staff Writer
Content warning: This article mentions sexual harassment.
Trailblazing Sports Illustrated reporter Jane Gross, who paved the way for female sports journalists as the first female sports writer to access a professional basketball locker room for a post-game interview in 1975, died on Wednesday, Nov. 9, in New York City. The New York Times stated that, according to her brother and sole immediate survivor Michael Gross, several falls culminated in a traumatic brain injury that led to her death at age 75.
Gross’ career started in the late 1960s after she graduated from Skidmore College with a degree in literature and got a job working as a researcher for Sports Illustrated. After working at Sports Illustrated for six years, Gross was hired by Newsday in 1975, where she covered professional basketball. It was here that Gross broke the standards set for female sports writers.
The New York Times reported that typically, after professional basketball games, male reporters would be permitted into the team locker rooms and clubhouses to interview players post-game. However, female reporters were made to wait outside until players came out, as sports teams felt a woman’s presence would be invasive. In February 1975, Gross spoke to Red Holzman — the coach of the New York Knicks at the time — about providing her access to the Knicks locker room in order to interview players, and he agreed. Gross then became the first female sports writer known to enter a professional basketball locker room.
According to The New York Times, Gross is quoted in a 1976 profile by the Newspaper Enterprise Association as saying, “You really can’t get the flavor of the players without seeing them in the locker room and the camaraderie they share.” She continued, “It’s a beautiful thing, the closeness and lack of inhibition after great physical exertion. Most women rarely experience it.”
The New York Times reported that in the late 1970s, the National Basketball Association installed a policy that required that women be permitted to work in locker rooms. However, despite the legislative progress, Gross faced consequences for being the first female reporter to work so closely with players. While covering baseball, Dave Kingman, a former Major League Baseball player, dumped a bucket of water on her head. Spaghetti and meatballs were once hurled at her. However, while speaking about her experience as she accepted an award from the Association for Women in Sports Media in 2018, she reflected on the outpour of support she received for her work, citing thank you notes that were sent to her from girls who aspired to be sports writers like her.
“They wrote of reading my stories on microfilm and feeling the world open up,” Gross said, according to The Association for Women in Sports Media.
Gross was not alone in blazing trails for female sports writers. Melissa Ludtke was alongside Gross in the fight for access to locker rooms. Ludtke was assigned to cover the 1977 World Series between the New York Yankees and the Los Angeles Dodgers but was denied access to team locker rooms by the commissioner’s office because she was a woman. The Huffington Post reported that Ludtke took this issue to court, and in 1978, a federal New York judge resolved that the Yankees were forbidden from imposing MLB policy barring female journalists from locker rooms, as it was in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment and gave their fellow male reporters an unfair advantage in the field.
According to news.com Australia, female reporters still face obstacles when trying to report in locker rooms. Cases and complaints have been filed against athletes and officials alike, stating instances of athletes exposing themselves to female reporters, unwanted comments and groping. Women like Ludtke and Gross worked to break barriers for women in sports reporting, and as such, female sports writers have been allowed into locker rooms to seek the same stories as male writers since 1975.