Imagine this.

You graduate from Boston College and immediately get your dream job. Not only have you loved sports all your life, your true love was writing about them. You have been given an opportunity to do just that, and it also comes at the place that features the best sports section of all time: inside The Boston Globe. Your colleagues are names like baseball writer Peter Gammons, tennis writer Bud Collins, Bob Ryan on basketball and Will McDonough handles football. Oh, and there’s also John Powers – who only won a Pulitzer.

Clearly, you’re a bit intimidated. It’s hard enough to prove yourself at a young age, right out of college. Try doing it with Hall of Fame writers in your section. But your reputation preceded you, and won some respect from your co-workers. In turn, it has made you feel great about the job you’ve done, and the job you’re doing. Things are going well.

Then, you get the opportunity to cover the New England Patriots – a huge step in your young career. You head over on your first trip to cover practice, grinding your teeth with nervousness. Then you look at your media credential. It says “no women or children in the press box.” Not uncommon, especially in 1976. The press box is a workplace. It isn’t a touring hot spot.

Doesn’t sound like a big deal, right?

Ask Lesley Visser. She was the first female NFL beat writer. On her first trip to cover the team she was just assigned, it said on her credential she’s not welcome – because she’s a woman.

Visser, a Wyoming, Ohio native, has her story chronicled (along with a number of other female broadcast, coaching and sports business pioneers) by one of those pioneers herself: Betsy Ross.

Playing Ball with the Boys by Betsy Ross

Her book, Playing Ball With The Boys: The Rise of Women in the World of Men’s Sports, sheds light on how these women broke through barriers to become successful in a world dominated by men and, for a long time, blatent chauvinism.

Many of you in the area remember Betsy as news anchor for WLWT channel 5 in Cincinnati (or even WCPO channel 9), but outside of this area, many recognize her from her work at ESPN – where she was among the first in a roster of talented women to anchor ESPNews and SportsCenter telecasts. Today, it’s commonplace to turn on ESPN and see Chris McKendry, Hannah Storm or Cindy Brunson at the anchor desk in Bristol.

A few weeks ago, I was talking with a friend of mine – a woman, mind you – who was inquiring about my broadcasting career. In her own way of complimenting me, she said “I don’t know why you don’t get these bigger jobs and these women who have no idea what they’re talking about are all over TV.”

In as many words, I had heard this before. Complimentary? Yes – but incredibly short-sided, to say the least. What makes a person feel another is unqualified to speak intelligently on a subject because of his/her gender? How can anyone today feel that hard work and diligent research is limited to men? I’m here to tell you: if you subscribe to that theory, you’re in for years of frustration. Women are not only receiving more and more opportunities in sports, they’re doing a very good job.

I know this because they’re my competition.

Betsy Ross will be the first to tell you this. We’ve seen “experiments” with women on the sidelines (and other places) at sporting events, but it didn’t last very long. As Betsy says, “no matter who you are, if you don’t know your stuff you’re not going to last very long.”

She would know. Betsy graduated from Ball State University before receiving her master’s degree from Notre Dame. She anchored the news here in Cincinnati, for quite some time. Then she covered the Olympics, and subsequently landed a job at ESPN in Bristol. There, the life-long Reds fan was doing what she always wanted from the time she was a child in Connersville, Indiana: She was making a living covering sports.

Despite all of her experience and respect from her colleagues that know her as a consummate professional, there is still animosity from those who do not feel a person is capable or appropriate to cover a subject because of their gender.

Playing With The Boys brings to light not just the injustices of discrimination, but the women that broke through and overcame them. If you’re just a little older than me (31), then you surely remember “The NFL Today.” This is the show that started what I believe was the television revolution of the National Football League. Immediate issues involving the week’s games were discussed. Gambling “suggestions” were addressed. Another element was seeing the personal side of the players you saw on the field – a closer look at the athletes off the field. That’s where Phylis George came in. The former Miss America and eventual First Lady of Kentucky became the first woman to have a major role in a network sports telecast. It was a breakthrough, of course – but one that also took a toll. George endured constant harassment from Jimmy Snyder, or Jimmy “The Greek” – CBS’s gambling insider. It took such a toll on her that she gave the network an ultimatum. It was either him or her. CBS compromised by taping the Greek’s segment earlier in the day, so they wouldn’t be in the studio at the same time.

Imagine the pressure of being on the highest-rated live television program in the country, knowing that close to 75 percent of all Americans watching television are watching you…live. Focus is paramount. On top of that, you have to deal with a colleague undermining your every move and making comments that would be considered inappropriate even at Jefferson Hall [the local bar] on a Monday night. Yet George succeeded, and became an icon, a pioneer and symbol of inspiration for women – or anyone – who’s been a victim of harassment in the workplace.

That harassment is still happening today. Recently, ESPN pulled Ron Franklin off the radio broadcast of the Fiesta Bowl. During a production meeting, Jeanine Edwards chimed in on a conversation concerning a colleague’s wife being elected mayor of Alameda, California. Franklin snapped “Why don’t you leave this to the boys, sweetcakes.” When she responded that she didn’t appreciate being talked to like that, he called her an “a-hole.”

A lack of professionalism to say the least.

We are evolving. In television, women are becoming more widely accepted across the news world. It is now commonplace to see a woman co-anchor a nightly newscast, even on the big three networks. NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams has become the minority; CBS and ABC feature Katie Couric and Diane Sawyer handling the anchor duties for their respective networks. Admittedly, though, when Williams is on assignment, on vacation or hosting “Saturday Night Live” (or a guest on Jimmy Fallon’s show, for whatever reason), Ann Curry is one of the primary fill-ins.

Take a moment and think about that. These women cover the world’s most important and difficult issues of our lives. They cover our struggling economy, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and politics. The women at the major networks are just a few out of hundreds that are making a big difference for women in broadcasting. Sports coverage is huge. Sporting events continue to do well despite our down economy. Women are doing the job in bigger numbers, and are doing it very, very well.

It’s time for the chauvinists to wake up.

Be sure to watch the video of Will’s entire interview with Betsy Ross below!