#FromtheArchives: Keep Out, Gal Writers
PLUS: Join me on Friday in Greensboro as I talk with Melissa Ludtke about her memoir, "Locker Room Talk!"
Hi, friends. First off, I’m sorry things have been a bit slow on my end. I’ll fill you in on why very soon. It’s all good things! This week we’ll be playing catch-up — expect daily newsletters, at least for paid subscribers, through the weekend!
Today’s we take a look back through the archives, after a couple of announcements!
Join me in Greensboro this Friday night (10/4) for a book talk with Melissa Ludtke
This Friday night, October 4, I have the great honor of hosting an event with Melissa Ludtke at Scuppernong Books in downtown Greensboro. We will be talking about Ludtke’s phenomenal memoir, “Locker Room Talk: A Woman’s Struggle To Get Inside.” (PLEASE buy it; it is SO GOOD.)
The word “legendary” is thrown around a lot. But Ludtke fits the descriptor, and then some. In 1978, when she was a 26-year-old reporter with Sports Illustrated, Ludtke sued MLB commissioner Bowie Kuhn in federal court because he banned all women from reporting in locker rooms.
She, quite literally, paved the way for the rest of us.
In this newsletter, I’m going to look back at some of the coverage of her court case — she discusses it in the book, but I was very curious to read the articles in full. They are, somehow, even more malicious than I thought possible. I’ll also be including some excerpts from our interview on Friday in next week’s newsletter, but if you can make it in person, I hope you will!
How to help NC
But first, as you all know, I live in North Carolina, so the destruction from Hurricane Helene hits very close to home. Thankfully, Greensboro, where I live, wasn’t directly hit, and all of my friends and family that live in the impacted areas in the mountains are okay. But many were not so lucky.
The North Carolina Courage will be donating “significant proceeds” from this Saturday’s game against the San Diego Wave to the United Way to provide direct relief to NC counties impacted by Helene. Here’s a link for tickets.
You can also directly donate to the United Way in North Carolina here, or to the North Carolina Disaster Relief Fund here.
Sending love to everyone impacted by the storm, and who is struggling in general right now.
#FromtheArchives: ‘Sports Illustrated’s Joan of Arc’
In 1977, MLB Commissioner Bowie Kuhn barred Sports Illustrated reporter Melissa Ludtke from doing her job and reporting in the locker room during the World Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees. He wasn’t necessarily singling out Ludtke; Kuhn banned all female reporters from the locker room. But Ludtke’s employer, Time Magazine, decided to fight back and sue.
The case, Ludtke v. Kuhn, became front-page news in 1978.
New York Times sportswriter Red Smith won the Pulitzer Prize in 1976. He wasn’t just widely respected, he was the narrative setter. On January 9, 1978, he wrote a column about Ludtke’s case.
In it, he didn’t just mock Ludtke’s case; he slandered her character and completely misrepresented her intentions. It is, truly, unconscionable. (If you have a hard time reading the image below, here is a link to the text.)
“With this column, Smith set the tone of what sportswriters’ coverage of my case would be. In Americans’ minds, he’d left the indelible image of a laughable case involving a lucky girl who couldn’t get naked men off her mind,” Ludtke wrote in “Locker Room Talk.”
“His influence showed in the subsequent stories that echoed his views. In fact, Smith’s view and tone became the dominant narrative about my case as the men played the same old tune about how no ‘lady’ whose feminine sensibilities anchored her moral code would think of entering a room where strange men might be undressed.”
Set the tone he did. Over the next few months, it seems like every sports columnist in America had fun writing their own version of Smith’s column.
Here’s Joe Falls in the Detroit Free Press on February 23, 1978, taking Smith’s narrative to heart and adding a few spins of his own:
And here’s a column by Dick Young of the New York Daily News that was syndicated all around the country — this particular edition I’m sharing was published in the Press and Sun-Bulletin in Binghamton, New York on September 28, 1978, after the judge ruled in Ludtke’s favor.
I feel slimy after reading those. Ugh.
Anyways, buy Ludtke’s book, it’s a phenomenal read about such an important part of sports history, and a really eye opening look at how hard women have had to fight in the sports world to get to where we are today.
And come join us in Greensboro on Friday if you can!
Talk soon.
I bought her book after hearing Melissa on Richard Deitsch's podcast. Sorry to miss the Friday event!