These women loved sports in 1956

I recently went through my late father’s personal library. My mom kept most of the good stuff, but one little treasure I took home with me was a copy of the very first issue of Sports Illustrated. 

It came out on August 16, 1954 and proclaimed “in Sports Illustrated today’s miraculous cameras will have a weekly field day in a field that is peculiarly theirs, to capture the instants of dramatic excitement, of human and animal grace, of victory and defeat, that are what sport is made of.” 

1954 was almost 40 years before I was born. It was before my father was born. My grandfather was only just a boy of 16. This time is a world away from where we are today. Or so I thought…

In a fun write-in section of the magazine titled “Jimmy Jemail’s Hotbox,” people were asked which sport provokes the most arguments in their home.  “The double-header glues me to the television set for five wonderful hours,” said Mrs. R.B. Jenkins. “Football,” said Mrs. Strong. “I’m a dyed-in-the-wool Yale rooter.” These women were just plain sports fans. A far cry from the notions I had about 1956. 

Working in advertising, the question is always posed: how do we get more women involved? How do we represent more women? No doubt this is important, but the broad demographic strokes of “women aren’t into sports” or “men aren’t into makeup”—or whatever—are simply the whines of corporate executives who want a bigger market share. These women in 1956 were crazy about their sports, in a way that defies the boxes we place on women, the fifties, or target market demographics. 

Yes, we’ve made a lot of progress since 1956. (The reason I couldn’t attribute these women’s quotes with their first names is because Sports Illustrated published them as only the “Mrs.” of their husband’s). Yes, we’ll continue to make progress. But don’t think that you can’t be interested in something that you like. You can. People always have been.

Even in 1956.