1976

1977

• Major League Baseball commissioner Bowie Kuhn prohibits Melissa Ludtke, a writer for Sports Illustrated, from interviewing players in the clubhouse during the World Series. SI publisher Time Inc. files a lawsuit, and, the following year, a U.S. federal judge rules that male and female reporters should have equal access to the locker room.

1978

• Le Anne Schreiber of The New York Times becomes the first female sports editor at a major daily newspaper.

1979

• The Fort Myers News-Press threatens a lawsuit against the NFL's Tampa Bay Buccaneers to win equal access to the locker room for sports reporter Michele Himmelberg. Two years later, Himmelberg is working at the Sacramento Bee, where a lawsuit is filed to win her equal access to the San Francisco 49ers' locker room.

1981

• Betty Cuniberti of the Washington Star becomes the first woman to receive the National Headliner Award for Consistently Outstanding Sports Writing.

1986

• Oakland Athletics player Dave Kingman sends a package to Sacramento Bee beat writer Susan Fornoff in the press box that is wrapped in pink paper. The package contains a live rat with a tag that reads "My name is Sue."

1987

• Nancy Cooney, Susan Fornoff, Michele Himmelberg and Kristin Huckshorn found AWSM.

1988

• AWSM holds its first convention in Oakland, California. Forty women attend. Christine Brennan is elected the organization's first president.
• NBC's Gayle Gardner becomes the first full-time female sports anchor at a major network.

1989

• Hannah Storm is hired by CNN after being given a sports quiz none of her male colleagues had to take.

1990

• AWSM members Christine Brennan and Lesley Visser pool the $250 they each had been paid to appear on a sports cable talk show, seek donations from others and establish the AWSM internship/scholarship program. Vicki Friedman, a graduate student at Missouri, is the first winner, receiving a paid summer internship at The Philadelphia Inquirer and an expenses-paid trip to AWSM's 1990 convention.
• A group of New England Patriots players including Zeke Mowatt, Michael Timpson and Robert Perryman, harass the Boston Herald's Lisa Olson in the locker room. The players are later fined and the team's general manager is fired for trying to cover up the incident, which sparks a national debate.
• At a "Monday Night Football" game in Seattle, Denise Tom of USA TODAY is barred from the Cincinnati Bengals' locker room by coach Sam Wyche, who is later fined $30,000 by the NFL.
Detroit Free Press intern Jennifer Frey is verbally harassed by Tigers pitcher Jack Morris when she tries to interview him.

1991

• Beth Harris of the Associated Press is evicted from the Indiana University men's basketball locker room by coach Bob Knight.
• Karen Crouse of The Orange County Register, Lisa Nehus Saxon of The Riverside Press- Enterprise, Karen Pearlman of the El Cajon Daily Californian and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Ailene Voisin experience adverse locker-room incidents.

1993

• The San Francisco Giants' Sherry Davis becomes the first female public-address announcer in Major League Baseball.

1995

• Suzyn Waldman becomes the first woman to provide color commentary for a nationally broadcast Major League Baseball game.
• Robin Roberts becomes first woman to host ABC's "Wide World of Sports."

1998

• Lesley Visser becomes first woman to appear as an on-air sideline reporter on "Monday Night Football."

1999

• AWSM presents its first Pioneer Award to Lesley Visser.
• In a Wall Street Journal article, retired NFL defensive end Reggie White writes that he cannot see a legitimate reason for "forcing male athletes to walk around naked in front of women who aren't their wives" and encourages athletes to fight against equal access for female journalists. New York Knicks guard Charlie Ward distributes copies of the article to his teammates and claims having women in the locker room violates the sanctity of marriage. Madison Square Garden president and chief executive officer Dave Checketts condemns Ward's actions.

2000