A story of what was?
“Just one?” Ferne Labati says.
She picks a road trip to New York City after she started coaching in 1967 and before arriving to the University of Miami in 1988. The school doesn’t matter. What mattered was her getting the food money for her women’s basketball players, looking in the looking in an envelope and her assistant saying, “That won’t even get a soda in New York.”
When she mentioned this to a school official, “I was told, ‘The men eat more than women so they get more money,’ ’' Labati said. “I wanted to say, ‘I know women who can eat more than a man.’ But that’s just how it was — the kind of mentality you saw every day.’ ’'
Monday was International Women’s Day, so take a moment to survey the changing world. Normally, you wouldn’t think twice about Miami Marlins players being evaluated by their general manager — but the general manager is Kim Ng, the first female to run a major sports team.
Normally, you wouldn’t think twice about a sports week when the Dolphins hired a new media-relations director — except the official was Anne Noland. Or think about a Miami Doral Academy coach celebrating a boys high school soccer title — except the coach was Pamela McDonald.
I took opportunities inside sports for granted. All men do on some level. It’s our common ground. But recently have women taken opportunity to another level — female assistants in pro basketball and football, women in front offices of all leagues.
Ng put out a message on Instagram wishing everyone a happy International Women’s Day.
“If I can do it, you can do it, too,” she said.
She also put out a playlist that Apple Music said, “feels like a tour of women’s empowerment through the decades.” The 41-song list starts with “Soy Yo” by Bomba Estereo, includes “Respect” by Aretha Franklin, and ends with “Wild Thing,” by Sister Carol.
This progress inside sports expands the traditional road to achievement for women. Naomi Osaka, who grew up playing tennis on Broward County courts, recently beat Serena Williams, of Palm Beach Gardens, in the Australian Open finals. Morgan Pressel, who grew up in Boca Raton, just added a Golf Channel broadcaster gig to go with her LPGA playing schedule.
Equality? We’re not there. We won’t reach that point until it’s not newsworthy that women are in positions of power. Not until a flight attendant doesn’t quietly ask Ng (as happened with the Los Angeles Dodgers), “What did you do to get on this plane?”; when high-school referees and opposing coaches don’t walk by McDonald looking for the coach of her boys’ team.
Sports, like the rest of the world, needs to be better. It’s becoming clear to men who grew up in a sea of testosterone that sports are changing. Slowly, in some corners. You still have stories like 16 current and former female employees of The Golf Channel describing sexism, misogyny and harassment at the network.
You still have stories like the NFL’s Washington Football Team allegedly sending an internal email in 2017 requesting female staff members not to be “present in any football areas while players are here.”
You also have women like Labati, now 74, who can measure the timeline of what was against what is. Of progress made. Of opportunities earned.
“It’s phenomenal what’s happening,’' she said.
It’s not just the big picture of Ng in a position of authority at a Major League Baseball team. It’s college coaches not stuffing players in rent-a-cars to travel to away games. It’s getting the same meal money on the road as men’s teams.
It’s girls growing up with different vision of who they can be in sports.
“I was one of the lucky ones growing up in New Jersey,’' Labati said. “I had sports teams for me to join. When I started coaching, I’d see great athletes who didn’t have the chance to play on teams and so didn’t develop.”
Women are getting something more these days in sports. It’s there as song No. 21 on Ng’s playlist for International Women’s Day: Janet Jackson’s “Control.”
