Jane Gross, a sportswriter best known for being the first female sportswriter to work in a pro basketball locker room, died on Wednesday. She was 75 years old.
According to Richard Sandomir of The New York Times, Gross’s brother confirmed that she had a series of falls that led to a traumatic and fatal brain injury.
Gross grew up as the daughter of a New York Post sports columnist before becoming a sportswriter herself. She first started working for Sports Illustrated as a reporter in the late 1960s, then moved to Newsday covering basketball. While attending a Knicks game in 1975, Gross became the first female journalist to enter a male locker room for a professional sports team, breaking down that barrier. Within a few years, leagues mandated that women journalists be allowed into locker rooms.
