(Published by www.ajr.org)
By Sherry Ricchiardi
Sherry Ricchiardi is an AJR Senior Writer.
December/January 2005
Lesley Visser calls it a "great blessing" that her parents didn't discourage her when, as a little girl, she announced she planned to be a sportswriter when she grew up. "They just said, 'fine,' even though there were no role models," says Visser, 50, who was the first female journalist to join "Monday Night Football" and report from the sidelines at the Super Bowl.
On Halloween, when other girls dressed like Mary Poppins, Visser went as the Boston Celtic legend Sam Jones, wearing his number 24 on her back. In 1975, after graduating from Boston College, she took a sportswriting job with the Boston Globe and later moved to CBS Sports and then to ABC and ESPN. Visser, who returned to CBS in 2000, feels she is leaving an honorable legacy.
"I wasn't a fraud"--someone who was "just a pretty face, not passionate or committed," says Visser. "I had to stand up for myself on many occasions. I also had good support. You don't land on Normandy by yourself." Visser and her husband, Dick Stockton, a sportscaster with Fox and Turner Broadcasting, met during the 1975 World Series and have been married for 22 years. Having children, she says, didn't fit with two demanding schedules.
A clash during the 1980 Cotton Bowl between Nebraska and Houston still upsets her. In the fourth quarter, Visser procured an armband for entry into the locker room. But the Houston coach blocked her entry, saying, "I don't give a damn about equal rights. I'm not having her in my locker room." He grabbed Visser by the shoulders and led her away.
The reporter remembers thinking, "Oh my God! Don't cry on the 5 p.m. news," as the media zeroed in on the scene. "It was one of my worst humiliations, and there were many," she says. "You get some scar tissue from it, but I'm pretty happy now." The 2004 International Olympic committee chose Visser to carry the torch along a strip in New York City, recognizing her as a "pioneer and standard-bearer" in sports journalism.