Melissa Ludtke and the Fight for Equal Access in Sports Journalism

Mar 27

In this episode of That Said, Michael Zeldin interviews Melissa Ludtke about her new book Locker Room Talk and her pioneering fight for equal access to Major League Baseball locker rooms as a woman sports reporter.

In celebration of Women’s History Month, CommPRO is proud to spotlight trailblazing women whose courage and persistence have reshaped the media and communications landscape. One such pioneer is Melissa Ludtke—a name synonymous with breaking barriers in sports journalism.

Ludtke’s new book, Locker Room Talk: A Woman’s Struggle To Get Inside, is a gripping and deeply personal account of her historic battle in the 1970s to gain equal access to Major League Baseball locker rooms. As a young baseball reporter for Sports Illustrated, Ludtke found herself at the center of a legal and cultural showdown with the New York Yankees—and, by extension, the entire sports media establishment—over her right to do her job.

Denied access to the Yankees’ locker room during the 1977 World Series, Ludtke took her case to federal court. The lawsuit she filed—Ludtke v. Kuhn—resulted in a landmark decision affirming that women sports reporters were entitled to the same professional access as their male counterparts. Her victory was not just about baseball—it was about fairness, opportunity, and changing the rules of the game for generations of women journalists to come.

Ludtke’s career includes tenures at Sports Illustrated and Time magazine, and she later served as editor of Nieman Reports at Harvard University. Her work has earned her the Yankee Quill Award and the Mary Garber Pioneer Award, two of the highest honors in journalism. She was also a Nieman Fellow at Harvard and a Prudential Fellow at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism.

Now, with Locker Room Talk, Ludtke brings readers inside the personal and professional journey that led to one of the most important legal victories for gender equality in media history. It is a story of grit, integrity, and the relentless pursuit of justice—qualities that continue to inspire communicators across every field.

Still a devoted Boston Red Sox fan, Ludtke lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Her legacy continues to shape the standards of inclusion and access in journalism, sports, and beyond.

To hear more from Melissa Ludtke, tune in to her full conversation with Michael Zeldin on the That Said podcast, available on all major streaming platforms.