Maven's Memories: Robin Herman, Revolutionary

As we celebrate Gender Equality Month most fans under the age of 40 would not believe the barriers encountered a half-century ago by female hockey journalists.
It was exactly 50 years ago that the first female hockey writer was allowed in the Madison Square Garden press box. Previously, they had been egregiously ostracized.

I know that for a fact because it was my trailblazing wife, Shirley, who had been banned from covering a Rangers home game. The MSG press ticket explicitly stated LADIES NOT ALLOWED IN THE PRESS BOX.
Shirley fought for two years against this sexist ouster until the New York City Human Rights Commission upheld her right to cover a Rangers-Toronto playoff match.
But not all anti-feminine walls came down with Shirley's triumph and that's where Robin Herman comes in - another barrier-buster extraordinaire.
A good three years after Shirley helped open MSG press box doors to women two other female hockey journalists gained a notable victory.
In January 1975 Herman -- writing for the New York Times -- and Marcelle St. Cyr, a Montreal radio reporter, became the first ladies to enter a National Hockey League clubhouse.
The event was the annual All-Star game at The Forum in Montreal. Both St. Cyr and Herman were assigned to cover the event. There was little mention during the morning festivities that anything unusual would happen; but it sure did.

Everything that had once passed for "normal" went out the window. During a pre-game news conference, coaches from both teams were questioned about the possibility of the two female reporters in attendance entering their locker rooms.
When the answers were in the affirmative the fuss and fanfare began in earnest and would continue into the post-game locker room event.
It should be noted that when Shirley Fischler originally made history at The Garden three years earlier there were no tv cameras present nor any picture-taking nor interviews. It just happened. Period!
By contrast when St. Cyr and Herman entered the All-Stars clubhouse, they became the story and not the annual game of stars.
Not surprisingly, Herman wrote about her adventure in The Times.
Herman: "Cameras hovered over our shoulders. Microphones poked at our mouths. The task of establishing a serious professional rapport with a player in a dressing room is difficult enough, but it was made virtually impossible by the circus scene."
The new coed-coverage situation hardly met with unanimous approval from either players, management or some of the fellow male hockey writers.
"It's a stunt and it will fade away," one of the male writers predicted.
Ironically, the words were virtually identical to what was muttered after Shirley covered her first playoff game at The Garden.
But for Robin Herman it was not a case of one game and out any more than it was for my wife. Shirley wrote several hockey books and the two of us became the first husband and wife team to work tv together, covering the New England Whalers -- two years before Herman's expedition.
Robin, who was the first woman to be hired for the Times sports staff, eventually was assigned to cover the Islanders in the late 1970's and that included the playoffs.

Jerry Eskenazi, a longtime member of the Times sports staff and still an occasional contributor, remembers when Herman became part of the team's hockey coverage.
"I actually drove Robin to the Rangers training camp in Kitchener, Ontario," Eskenazi recalls. "This was shortly after she joined the Times. I remember that she was completely comfortable walking among the players in the locker room -- very professional.
"Certainly, it was not easy for her but, then again, she never was ga-ga over players. She went about her job as if being the first woman in the locker room was most natural.
MAVEN'S MEMORIES
WRITTEN COVERAGE
Remembering Jean Potvin
The Unheralded Lorne Henning
Wayne Merrick Makes Mark on Cups
Don't Forget Tomas Jonsson
The Underrated Stefan Persson
Stan's Favorite Clark Gillies Memories
From Doghouse to Penthouse in 1975
Al Arbour's Trifecta
Maven's Haven
"Back in New York she was at a disadvantage having to talk to players outside the locker room while everyone inside sat around and kibitzed. I believe that, as President of the Hockey Writers' Association, I pressured the Garden to allow her inside."
During the 1978 Islanders-Maple Leafs series at Maple Leaf Gardens Herman displayed her elan immediately after Mike Bossy viciously was crushed into the boards by Jerry Butler of the Leafs.
Bossy was in obvious pain -- later to be removed by stretcher -- and Robin knew that she had to be on top of the story.
Leaving her fellow male journalists behind, she rushed down to the arena until she was flush at the glass looking right down at Bossy. This was up-front journalism of the first order.
Following Herman's lead, other female writers soon joined the NHL journalist ranks. Lawrie Mifflin began covering hockey for the Daily News later to be followed by Mary Flannery at the same paper.
Another Robin -- this one Robin Finn -- followed Herman as a Times sports reporter. Finn occasionally covered hockey.
While the Islanders were among the first NHL teams to permit women in their dressing room, elsewhere equal access did not happen overnight. The most vocal opponent was Maple Leafs owner Harold Ballard.
Former NHL coach-turned-Hockey-Night-In-Canada analyst Don Cherry supported Ballard's stance. Conversely, when John Ferguson became Rangers GM he welcomed female reporters into the Blueshirts sanctum.
Herman remained on the Times hockey beat until 1979, four years after she and Marcelle St. Cyr revolutionized NHL dressing room coverage.
She left the paper in 1983 and enjoyed a varied career including a gig as assistant dean for communications at Harvard's School of Public Health. She retired in 2013 and at age 70, she passed away earlier this winter.
Ironically, when I tell young female journalists -- now free of any obsolete sexist rules -- about the challenges that my wife, Shirley, and Robin Herman faced in the 1970's, their answer invariably is the same:
"Are you kidding me?"