Women In Sports Media-Elinor Kaine

Elinor Kaine-Penna is one of the first female sportswriters to cover pro-football in the 1960's. Kaine is most famous for not getting into the Yale Bowl pressbox on August 18, 1969 at the New York Jets 37-14 exhibition victory over the NY Giants. Miss Kaine went to court before officials would allow her to cover the game from the pressbox with 356 male writers and broadcasters. Yale granted persmission, but when Miss Kaine arrived she was seated in an auxiliary lower section. The picture of her pressbox rejection was circulated in newspapers all over the world, and she was quoted as saying, "A lot of men came down at halftime to say hello."

A 1957 Smith College graduate, Kaine's columns, Line Back, Football Broadside and A Woman's Angle, appeared in newspapers all over the country. She also had columns in the game programs of eight pro football teams. In 1969 Macmillan published her book, Pro Football Broadside.

Kaine appeared twice on the popular game show "What's my Line". From 1969-1971 she did the Sunday Pre-Game show before NFL games on CBS with Pat Summerall and Jack Whitaker. She left sportwriting in 1971 when she married and moved to France.

John Steadman, Sports Editor for Baltimore News-America said of Kaine, "She can gather more inside information without venturing inside a single locker room than J. Edgar Hoover, Walter Winchell and Louella Parsons combined."

And John Crittenden, Sports Editor, Miami News said, "Elinor Kaine is the Tokyo Rose of Pro Football."