By Clairissa Pett
clairissa@newsroom.byu.edu
While the headline of this article may not be true today, it was 50 years ago.
However, there is still a residue of truth that remains in that statement.
While women are allowed in the press box, locker rooms and fields of play today -- barring legitimate credentials -- many are still not welcome.
Now, before any of you brush this piece off as just another feminist ploy at obtaining special rights, allow me to explain.
I am not your typical woman. I am a sportswriter.
I cannot think of a more enjoyable profession. I get paid -- and fed -- to attend sporting events for free and write about them.
It has been my dream job since I was 14 years old.
But back in those days, I had ideals about the profession. Of equality and acceptance.
Since then, I've gone on to cover college and high school sports as well as professional baseball and hockey.
But, for me at least, sportswriting is really not all it's cracked up to be.
Take, for example, two years ago when I was covering a high school football game for Deseret News.
I walked to the gate and showed my credentials.
'Hold on for a second. Where did you get this?' the ticket taker asked.
Well, I certainly didn't dig through the trash and find it.
'I work for Deseret News, sir. I'm a reporter,' I said.
'Wait right here.'
So I waited. The 60-year-old man called to other reporters already on the sideline from various newspapers. He asked them to testify that they knew me.
Whaddya know. I was legit.
I'm sorry, but high school events are not THAT tantalizing that I would want to sneak onto the sidelines.
At another football game, the head coach of one of the teams came up and started yelling at me to get some athletic tape.
'I'm not a trainer. I'm a reporter.'
'Get some tape,' he kept yelling.
'Look, I'm not a trainer, but if the tape is that important to you, tell me where it is, and I'll get it.'
It's the little things that make being a woman sportswriter so difficult.
At one of the Utah high school swimming championships, I went to interview someone from the team favored to win. The assistant coach obliged to the interview and also managed to ask me out.
Aside from that being unprofessional and against my personal code of ethics, it was downright gross. Let me think, I'm 19 and you're 30. No thanks.
That particular team went on to win, and, all of the sudden, I got the cold shoulder from that coach.
'No interviews at this time, ma'am.'
Somehow I don't think the other reporters there, who were all male, had to deal with that.
Another time involved a coach of a college basketball team who refused to answer my questions.
'I only talk to real reporters,' he said.
But my favorite stories come from some of you, the readers of The Daily Universe, who sent countless letters to the editor this semester, asking why in the world BYU has a woman sports editor.
I'll tell you why.
You see, ever since coming to BYU, it has been my goal to write about BYU football -- the big wig of BYU sports.
And, I admit, it has been awesome.
It has been the greatest honor to be sports editor during LaVell Edwards' last season.
But, as many readers insisted, who am I to write about Division I football?
Well, good grief, my history teacher never fought in the Civil War, but she is still an expert in the subject.
I wrote a column earlier this year about the BYU-Florida State match up. Many people didn't like it, particularly BYU offensive coordinator Lance Reynolds.
That same day the column ran, he reportedly told the team at practice not to pay attention to what I write because I don't know what I am talking about ... I have never smelled an athletic supporter in my life (not what he really said).
Well, I am telling you right now that it doesn't take that to make a good sportswriter.
Wake up men, womankind ain't what it used to be.
It is possible to know how to make a souffl? while wearing a skirt and still know the intricacies of the infield fly rule.
I'm not just defending myself, but all of the women who prefer ESPN's SportsCenter over soap operas.
In many ways, women have already broken so many stereotypes when it comes to sports writing. (Special thanks to my role models: Paola Boivin, Arizona Republic; Gwen Knapp, San Francisco Chronicle; Linda Hamilton, Deseret News).
But sports writing is still a boys' club.
There is still a lot of breaking through to be done.