Melissa ludtke biography
•
All Melissa Ludtke wanted to do was report and write about baseball. She made history instead.
Ludtke, then a 26-year-old reporter-researcher for Sports Illustrated magazine, was banned from both teams’ clubhouses during the 1977 Yankees-Dodgers World Series games in New York by order of Commissioner Bowie Kuhn, even after the teams themselves had agreed to let her in. And in the aftermath, she signed on as plaintiff in a lawsuit against Kuhn and Major League Baseball that ultimately opened those clubhouse doors to all, regardless of gender, based on the due process and equal protection clauses of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution.
It has been 46 years since that case was decided by federal judge Constance Baker Motley, a decision that over the years has made sports journalism not only more equal but better. But only now has Ludtke put the narrative behind those events between covers, in “Locker Room Talk: A Woman’s Struggle To Get Inside” (Rutgers University Press, 2024).
The first question I asked Ludtke when we talked this past week over Zoom was why it took her until now to write this story.
“There was no strategic thinking behind it,” she said, adding that she wasn’t planning for a particular moment because she &ldqu
•
Melissa Ludtke
American journalist
Melissa Ludtke | |
|---|---|
Ludtke on 15 Oct 2024 at New York Historical Society | |
| Born | (1951-05-27) May 27, 1951 (age 73) Iowa City, IowaU.S. |
| Other names | Melissa Ludtke Lincoln |
| Occupation | Journalist |
| Years active | 1974–present |
| Spouse | Eric Lincoln (divorced) |
| Children | 1 |
Melissa Ludtke (born May 27, 1951) is an American journalist.[1] In 1978, as a young sports journalist, Ludtke won a lawsuit for the right to be allowed in Major League Baseball locker rooms.[2][3]
Early life
[edit]Ludtke was born in Iowa City, Iowa, but grew up in Amherst, Massachusetts. She was the oldest of five children, her father worked at the University of Massachusetts where he taught finance, and her mother earned a Ph.D. in anthropology. Ludtke attended Wellesley College in Wellesley, MA and graduated in 1973 with a Bachelor of Arts in Art History.[4][5][6][7][8][9]
Career
[edit]Ludtke always had a passion for sports, and upon graduation, she began working for ABC Sports and Sports Illustrated.[10]
In 1979, she moved to CBS News and then moved to Time magazine where she was co-winner of a Unity Award in Media in 19
•