Don Cherry, who recently caused an uproar for saying that the men’s locker-room is no place for women, was the first coach to let a female reporter in an NHL locker room, according to retired sports writer Robin Herman.
Herman was the first female sports reporter for The New York Times and during the 70’s she covered the NHL.
“I’d gotten a lot of publicity for breaking ‘the locker room barrier’ at the 1975 NHL All-Star Game in Montreal, but that was a one-off. You were the first coach in the NHL to allow me, a female, accredited sports reporter and member of the Professional Hockey Writers’ Association, into your locker room as a matter of policy,” Herman stated in an open letter to Cherry.
“I was a 23-year-old kid in a tough situation. Getting prompt postgame interviews with the players was crucial to my ability to do my job. The Times was a morning newspaper, and I faced a draconian deadline of 11 p.m. I had maybe 40 minutes after the game ended, if I was lucky, to fax in a complete story. Every minute spent waiting for a team official to bring a player out of the locker room to speak to me separately in some dank hallway was excruciating.”
Though Cherry, whom Herman called her hero, allowed her locker-room access to the “Big Bad Bruins,” it wasn’t until she left the sports department in 1978 that all but four teams let females into the locker room.
Am told Don Cherry will address his recent comments on air, possibly during Wed’s game. I for one will be watching.
— Christine Simpson (@SNChrisSimpson) April 30, 2013
