RIP Le Anne Schreiber

Le Anne Schreiber, 73, Dies; a First Among Sports Editors

NYT's first visit female sports editor, dies at 73.

“I was, depending on one’s view, the bitch, the saint, the amazon, the token, the recipient of awards and death threats and, ultimately, the ingrate, for insisting upon my pre-agreed release after two excruciating years.”

 

Ms. Schreiber, who was later an ombudswoman for ESPN, was an untraditional choice to be The Times’s sports editor: She had never covered sports for a daily newspaper, though she had gained some experience writing about the subject. She had reported for Time magazine from the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, prompting the tennis star and feminist Billie Jean King to name her editor of her magazine, womenSports.
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I wouldn't have been too happy to rise up the ranks at the NY Times and then have to report to someone -- man or woman -- who had never covered daily sports. That's not fair to her or her staff IMHO.

She had impressive career, for sure. RIP.

 

Andre LaGuerre had never had a full time sports writing job when he became assitant managing and then the managing editor of Sports Illustrated. He had not even lived in the United States very much. He was a French citizen who had learned about American sports while living in San Francisco as the son of a French diplomat. The lack of that experience did not stop him from creating the 60's and 70's Sports Illustrated.

 

Fair enough. On the face of it, that was a nonsensical hire, too

 

To be fair, the French have a long and storied history of sports journalism with L'Equipe, Henri Desgrange, etc. They don't have a lot to show for it, but I suppose a rough stone makes a sharper edge, etc.