Nell Scovell On Being A Woman In Sports Journalism

Nell Scovell is a television writer/producer whose credits include NCIS, Monk, Warehouse 13, Murphy Brown, Coach, and Newhart. She was the first female to write an episode for The Simpsons ("One Fish, Two Fish, Blowfish, Blue Fish") and the second female to write for Late Night with David Letterman. She created and executive produced ABC's hit Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, which runs in syndication. But before she was into pop culture, she was into sports culture. Thirty years later, she's writing about that for the first time.

In September 1981, Vince Doria, editor of the Boston Globe sports page, called me up from the minors. Each year, the Globe hired four correspondents from local colleges to cover what was still called "schoolboy sports." Out of the blue, I got the nod. Next thing you know, I'm typing into a newfangled Atex system and breathing the same air as major league sportswriters Will McDonough, Bob Ryan, Michael Madden, Lesley Visser, Peter Gammons, and Leigh Montville. I quickly learned how to swear, guzzle lousy coffee, and find towns in Massachusetts that are still not on Google maps. I also received the best journalism advice of my life.

And I ignored it.

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