Open Book, Open Mind; Melissa Ludtke, "Locker Room Talk

A Woman’s Struggle to Get Inside"

The award-winning Sports Illustrated journalist who won the right to locker room interviews with male athletes in 1978 discusses her groundbreaking story with a sports journalist and MSU professor.

REGISTRATION IS CLOSED but seats are still available. Doors open at 6:00 p.m. After the discussion, there will be a Q&A period and a book signing and sale with Watchung Booksellers. The program is co-presented by the Yogi Berra Museum. 

Open Book / Open Mind is sponsored by Montclair Public Library Foundation, Watchung Booksellers, the New Jersey Council on Humanities, Anonymous, David and Mary Lee Jones, Dr. Alex and Doris Malaspina and our Underwriters. To support Open Book / Open Mind and other library programs, click here to donate.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Award-winning journalist Melissa Ludtke reported and wrote for Sports Illustrated and Time and was the editor of Nieman Reports at Harvard University’s Nieman Foundation. Her books "On Our Own: Unmarried Motherhood in America" and "Touching Home in China"; in search of missing girlhoods have been praised for pairing first-person storytelling with issue-oriented reporting. 

ABOUT THE BOOK

"'Locker Room Talk: A Woman’s Struggle to Get Inside' chronicles Ludtke's groundbreaking 1978 federal legal case that gave her equal access to work alongside her male peers in Major League Baseball locker rooms. With her ruling in Ludtke v. Kuhn, Judge Constance Baker Motley opened doors for generations of young women to walk through as they found jobs in sports media. Even with this breakthrough case, issues revolving around gender equity remain in play 46 years later.

"'Locker Room Talk' is Ludtke’s gripping account of being at the core of this globally covered case that churned up ugly prejudices about the place of women in sports. Kuhn claimed that allowing women into locker rooms would violate his players’ “sexual privacy.” Late-night television comedy sketches mocked her as newspaper cartoonists portrayed her as a sexy, buxom looker who wanted to ogle the naked athletes’ bodies.  She weaves these public perspectives throughout her vivid depiction of the court drama overseen by Judge Constance Baker Motley, the first Black woman to serve on the federal bench. She recounts how her lawyer, F.A.O. 'Fritz' Schwarz employed an ingenious legal strategy that persuaded Judge Motley to invoke the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause in giving Ludtke access identical to her male counterparts. Locker Room Talk is both an inspiring story of one woman’s determination to do a job dominated by men and an illuminating portrait of a defining moment for women’s rights."4

“'Locker Room Talk' gives us a front-row seat at Melissa Ludtke's celebrated courtroom battle when she went up against Major League Baseball and emerged with an enduring win for women's equal rights. I also admire her gutsy decision to share reflective insights on how the plentiful societal backlash against her buffeted her personal life as a 26-year old woman. Hers wasn't an easy struggle, but she persevered, and we are the better for it.”
—Hillary Rodham Clinton

ABOUT THE CONVERSATION PARTNER

Kelly Whiteside brings her experience as a sports journalist into the classroom at Montclair State University, focusing on critical issues in sport and their impact on society. At USA Today, she was the lead Olympics writer, World Cup soccer writer and the national college football writer. Prior to USA Today, she was a reporter at Newsday and a staff writer at Sports Illustrated. Her work has also been published in the New York Times. She is also currently a member of the College Football Playoff Selection Committee.

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