Playing Ball with the Boys: The Rise of Women in the World of Men's Sports

Betsy Ross was one of the first women to break into national sports media when she worked as an anchor on ESPN’s SportsCenter in the late 1990s. She held the position for five years. She is president and founder of Game Day Communications and has more than 20 years of experience as a sports and news anchor. Before anchoring SportsCenter and ESPN News, Ross worked at NBC News Channel and Cincinnati’s NBC affiliate, WLWT-TV, for seven years.
She continues to be involved in sports broadcasting as play-by-play anchor for women’s college basketball for ESPN, Fox Sports and other national and regional outlets, and as a sports reporter for Cincinnati’s FOX 19. She is the host of a weekly sports interview segment, “The Front Row,” that airs Saturday mornings on WVXU-FM, the NPR affiliate in Cincinnati. She also teaches a master’s level course, Sports and PR, at Xavier University. She is active in a variety of organizations, including the Special Olympics, and the Greater Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky Women’s Sports Association.
Ross is a native of Connersville, Indiana, received her bachelor’s degree at Ball State University and master’s degree at the University of Notre Dame. She is on the board of the Ball State University Foundation. She has received the Sagamore of the Wabash award, the highest civilian award given to Indiana residents, and is a Kentucky Colonel.

Female sideline reporters are the fastest-growing trend in broadcasts of professional and college football: names like Suzy Kolber, Erin Andrews, and Andrea Kremer are now as well known as any of the men in the booth. But even more has been going on. In recent years women have garnered spots as sports columnists and reporters, talk-show hosts, and even coaches and team administrators. Yet there has never been a book about this phenomenon. Former ESPN news anchor Betsy Ross fills this gap with Playing Ball with the Boys, a fascinating, behind-the-scenes look at the emerging role that women play in sports broadcasting and reporting, as well as in the business of sports. The book features interviews with the legendary women’s sports activist Billie Jean King, as well as Women’s Professional Soccer League leader Tonya Antonucci and ESPN College Basketball Analyst Rebecca Lobo. Prominent women working in the media are also featured in the book, including WFAN’s Ann Ligouri, CBS’ Lesley Visser, ESPN’s Pam Ward, USA Today’s Christine Brennan and Sports Illustrated’s Selena Roberts. Playing Ball with the Boys delivers firsthand accounts of the struggles and triumphs of women succeeding in what has long been a man's game.