Carol Maloney
“I knew sports reporting was for me the moment my first news director told me I couldn’t do it. ‘Sports is no place for a woman.’ ‘Guys will never take you seriously.’ And that’s a direct quote. So I studied. Hard. This was before the internet, so I memorized every team in every conference and every nickname and knew every head coach and star player. I volunteered my weekends shooting highlights of high school football games and college basketball games. I learned to edit and write highlights under tight deadlines. Eventually, I put a reel together that was good enough to land me a weekend sports anchor job in my hometown of Des Moines, Iowa. I said, ‘Ha ha!’ to the old news director, and I was on my way. I’ve made lot of mistakes—still do, though not as often of course. But I’m OK with that. After all, I’m human. I know my stuff, but I also know I belong.”