Town & Gown | March 2000 Top Story

By Nancy Folkenroth

Mary Jo Haverbeck has witnessed - and helped to cause - the evolution of women's sports coverage, including women's basketball.

I t takes pioneers to blaze new trails. And it takes determined females to succeed in fields where few women have gone before. Following are stories of three Centre County women, each unique in talent, curiosity and professional courage. One flourished as a teacher and radio disc jockey before discovering that in women's sports there are exciting stories to be told. Another made a comfortable living in the construction business her father had established, but decided she wanted the challenge of branching out on her own. A third pursued a midlife career switch, evolving from college professor to Episcopal priest. All have forged their ways off the beaten path.

Mary Jo Haverbeck
sports publicist
In 1974 Penn State's sports information department hired an enthusiastic young journalist, Mary Jo Haverbeck. Her task was to generate publicity for PSU's largely overlooked programs in women's athletics. It meant obtaining corporate financial support for women's teams and coaxing news media here and elsewhere to give more coverage to women's events. To do that, Haverbeck knew she'd have to counter negative attitudes that still existed about women in sports. Haverbeck was undaunted. Says the Delaware native, "I'm the sort of person who likes to try new things."

She'd already had a varied career by the time she landed at Penn State. A 1961 graduate of the University of Delaware, she settled in Wilmington, where she taught elementary school for four years, worked in public relations for several large firms and tried her hand at radio and TV broadcasting. In the early '70s she was invited by a friend to live in England for six months, and leaped at the chance. Once there, she applied for a job at a British radio station and soon found herself employed as a newscaster and disc jockey for the BBC.

Working overseas was an eye-opening experience. She recalls, "At sports arenas in the United States, women writers were not always allowed in the press boxes. In England, they had the same access as men journalists. Maybe attitudes are different there because they have a queen!"

She saw too that in Great Britain women's sports generated a lot of excitement. She says, "I remember sitting in Wembley Stadium watching two field hockey teams play in front of 50,000 fans, with national TV coverage. I thought, 'Wow, I didn't believe this could happen anywhere in the world!' "

Haverbeck has been behind the scenes ... and on center court, including at the Garden.

Back in the U.S., Haverbeck enrolled at Penn State as a graduate student in journalism, and began doing part-time publicity work in the university's sports information department. She credits several people with helping her along in the early years: John Morris, then director of sports information; Robert Scannell, who was dean of health, physical education & recreation at PSU; and especially Della Durant, long-time assistant athletics director. Says Haverbeck, "She fought like crazy on behalf of collegiate sports for women. When I started my job at PSU I didn't have an office, or even a desk. Della stood up and said, 'Here, take mine!' "

By 1974 Haverbeck was working full-time as assistant sports information director. The going was tough but she loved every minute of it. "I knocked on doors to sell advertising for women's programs, and walked the streets talking to people, trying to get their support," she says. "I visited newspapers, TV and radio stations. When they told me, 'We don't have time or space to cover women's athletics,' I just kept pitching good story ideas to them. I think people want to read interesting stories about athletes, whether it's a man playing basketball or a woman playing tennis."

Her persistence paid off. Over the years, popularity of women's sports at Penn State has risen dramatically, and Lady Lion athletes, teams and coaches have been featured in national publications in-cluding Sports Illustrated and Time.

Former dean Robert Scannell says, "I think Mary Jo succeeded for two reasons. First, she was an excellent journalist, and second, she had a great personality. People could talk to her or work alongside her and come away feeling they'd made a friend."

In 1978 she developed the first national computerized statistical rankings for collegiate women's basketball, and later launched Through the Hoop, the first national newsletter covering women's Division I basketball. More recently, she was instrumental in setting up and editing PSU's award-winning athletics department website, featuring a schedule of events for all varsity teams, plus breaking news and special announcements. For several years before her retirement in December 1999, she taught a popular course in sports information.

One of her former students, Cathy Bongiovi, now works as assistant media relations director for sports information at Penn State. She says, "There's no doubt Mary Jo opened doors in this profession for women like me. Recently our national organization, CoSIDA (College Sports Information Directors Association of America) honored her for 25 years of service, and she became the first woman inducted into their Hall of Fame. At the dinner and ceremony, there were at least 35 of us, all younger women working in sports information, all influenced by her. She's been there to show us the ropes or just listen if we want to talk."

Haverbeck plans to remain active in special events, notably NCAA's annual Women's Basketball Final Four. "I've had a lot of fun in my career," she muses. "The most exciting times were the make-or-break games, the nail-biters. I've been to two national football championships, the Sugar Bowl in '82 and the Fiesta Bowl in '86. I've visited just about every major basketball venue in the country."

She confides that wherever Penn State basketball teams play or practice, she takes the floor to attempt a lay-up. "I even did it at Madison Square Garden in 1995, the night before Michael Jordan made his comeback," says Haverbeck. "Not many people can say they've shot a basket at Madison Square Garden!"