Thirty years ago, the commissioner for Major League Baseball barred Melissa Ludtke — then Sports Illustrated reporter and 1992 Nieman Fellow — from the locker room during Game 1 of the 1977 World Series.
Time Inc., the corporate parent of SI, soon sued MLB, and the next year a federal court ruled in Ludtke vs. Kuhn that if men can do their jobs by speaking to sweaty, half-naked athletes, so must women be allowed to do so. Ludtke has been editor of Nieman Reports since 1998.
Read her oral history recorded for The Washington Press Club Foundation
Time Inc., the corporate parent of SI, soon sued MLB, and the next year a federal court ruled in Ludtke vs. Kuhn that if men can do their jobs by speaking to sweaty, half-naked athletes, so must women be allowed to do so. Ludtke has been editor of Nieman Reports since 1998.
Read her oral history recorded for The Washington Press Club Foundation
