Avenger of the Week | Diane K. Shah, A Trailblazer for Women in Sportswriting

Journalist and author Diane K. Shah wouldn’t take no for an answer, or, more precisely, wouldn’t take “no women” for an answer when it came to access to cover sports events in the early ‘70s.

One of the first women to cover professional sports, Shah was assigned by her National Observer editor to cover the MLB All-Star game in Detroit in 1971.  At the hotel where the other sports writers stayed, she got a goodie bag of men’s toiletries courtesy of the league along with an invite to a pre-game dinner for baseball writers and players that night. When she arrived at the dinner, a man at the door blocked her entrance and said, “Where are you going? No women allowed”. She insisted she was invited and showed her press pass, but the man said, “It’s a stag event – no women”. The two went back and forth for a few minutes. Finally, Shah looked him in the eye and said, “I’m going in. You’re going to have to bodily remove me”. She went in, and, to her surprise, no one approached her and she got her story.

Shah just kept going in where women were not always welcome.  She was one of  the first women to enter a locker room when she was at Newsweek and the first woman sports columnist for a U.S. daily newspaper, the LA Herald Examiner.   She covered everything from the Olympics, Super Bowls, World Series, and NBA championships to Final Fours, golf, and tennis championships in the ‘80s.

Shah later became an author of mysteries and non-fiction, and she recently wrote a memoir about her experiences as a sports reporter.

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Journalist, author, and now @GenderAvenger's #AvengerOfTheWeek Diane K. Shah wouldn’t take no for an answer, or wouldn’t take “no women” for an answer, when men tried denying her sports coverage access in the ‘70s. Thanks for opening doors. #GenderAvenger https://www.genderavenger.com/blog/avenger-of-the-week-diane-k-shah