16-Friday, October 8, 1982-The Michigan Daily
Cards rout
Braves,
Barb's Wire
By BARB BARKER
A view from the lockerroom . .
...nice girl in a place like this?
A pparently there was more excitement in the Michigan football
lockerroom after last weekend's Indiana sleeper than the sell-out crowd
saw on the field all afternoon.
Anne Doyle, sports reporter for WJBK-TV in Detroit, wanted to get in,
several members of the Michigan organization wanted her to stay out, and°
Michigan Sports Information Director Bruce Madej, wedged between a rock
and a hard plpce, may now have to bar all media from the Wolverine quar-
ters.
At about the same time, a younger female reporter stood alone outside the
Indiana lockerroom. The security guard did not want her to enter, and she-
possessed no great desire to visit the steamy quarters. She simply wanted to
join the other reporters, who were questioning Hoosier coach Lee Corso in
the adjoining conference room. This room has a separate outside entrance,
but the door was locked, so the rest of the media had filed through the
lockerroom entrance. She waited outside, hoping another reporter would
later share his notes.
Meanwhile, Doyle, who was on a tight deadline, tired of waiting outside the
Wolverines' I air and made her way through the lockerroom door. In the hall
that leads past the coaches dressing room, she encountered Michigan's fully-
dressed offensive line coach Elliot Lizelac. They -
had words which, according to Doyle, went
something like this:
"Lady, this is not right. This is not right for you
to be here."
"I have a job to do," Doyle replied.
The first-year assistant coach told her she
wasn't going to do her job with naked men run-
ning around. Doyle informed him she had a right
to be in the room with the other reporters.
Better coach than lawyer
"Your rights end where that door begins,"
said Uzelac.
Hopefully, the former Western Michigan head coach has a better grasp of
the offensive line than he does of the law. In 1978, a New York court ruled
that the Major League Baseball policy, which barred female reporters from
team dressing rooms, was unjust.
Sports Illustrated reporter Melissa Ludke had brought suit against Com-
missioner Bowie Kuhn and several other defendants after the Yankees had
refused her admittance to their lockerroom in 1977. The court ruled that the
policy unreasonably interfered with the plaintif's fundamental right to pursue
her profession and was in violation of the 14th amendment's due process
clause.
Since this ruling, professional sports teams have either opened their
lockerrooms to all reporters, or accommodated female reporters in a
satisfactory way. Madej realizes that forcing female reporters from the
dressing room could pose legal problems, but says the bottom line is that he
can't have women in the lockerroom.
"I have to respect the attitudes and convictions of the players and the
coaches," he said. "They want their privacy. Nothing has been decided yet,
and I'm hoping I can work something out with Ann. Otherwise, I'm going to
have to close it (the lockerroom)."
Can the team handle it?
Doyle, who has worked at WJBK for four years, has been inside the
Pistons', Tigers' and Red Wings' lockerrooms. She has also entered the
Wolverine's dressing room several times over the last couple of years. She
said she doesn't understand why this year is different.
Madej offered one explanation.
"I don't know what has happened in the past years, but a college team is
different from the pros," said the first-year Michigan Sports Information
Director. "These are just kids, not professionals. Some of them may not be
able to handle having a woman in there."
Closing down the lockerroom to all the media is certianly an unattractive
option. Reporters rely upon this post-game ritual to gather most of their
material for the coming week's stories. If Michigan officials brought only a
few selected players to the coach's interview room after the game, a 4
cheaper, assembly-line journalism would likely result.
"I'm not closing down the lockerroom - it's the team that closes it down,"
said Doyle. "All I want is to be treated the same as the other reporters."
The younger female reporter who was left standing outside the Indiana
lockerroom, couldn't agree more.