where she earned a broadcasting and mass communication degree. She competed in basketball and softball at Creighton University. She grew up playing sports with her siblings. Schatz’s late father was a federal district judge in Omaha. Being there first paved the way for others. But a few decades ago, even as recently as 2000, a female covering sports raised eyebrows and ire. Today, with women sports reporters galore on ESPN and Fox, her story may seem passe. As a lesbian, she once hid her sexual orientation for fear of repercussions. Schatz is back in Omaha as keynote speaker for the April 29 Toast to Fair Housing Gala at the Livestock Exchange Building Bsllroom.Īs a woman sportscaster, she’s confronted gender bias. These days, she does play-by-play of women’s college sports for the Pac-12 Network. She’s covered everything from the NBA finals to the Boston Marathon to the U.S, Women’s Open Golf Championship. From that Pacific Northwest base she’s traveled to cover the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway, where she broke the Tonya Harding story, and the 2000 Sydney, Australia Summer Games. She became one as her hometown’s first female sportscaster in the late 1970s, repeating the feat in Portland, Oregon in 1989. Her brother Thomas Schatz is a noted film educator, historian, and author who wrote one of the forewords fro my book, Alexander Payne: His Journey in Film.Īnn Schatz on her own terms – Veteran sportscaster broke the mold in OmahaĪppearing in the April 2016 issue of The Reader (Omaha native Ann Schatz swears she never meant to be a pioneer. However, I feel like we do know each other already as a result of the interview I did with her for the following profile appearing in the April 2016 issue of The Reader (Ann hails from a prominent Omaha family. Ann’s been away from Omaha a long time but she’s coming back as a keynote speaker for an event I will be at and I’m very much looking forward to meeting her for the first time.
#The style council francoise pro#
She rose above it all to prove herself a real pro who could talk and report sports with the best of her male counterparts. Because viewers, myself among them, were not entirely sure how we felt about her doing sports, which back then was the clear domain of men, we collectively put her through a trial-by-fire period that saw some folks get downright rude and nasty. It really was A Thing and topic for conversation because she was the first.
I distinctly remember when Ann broke through on Omaha television. She’s stuck it out to have a big career as a reporter and play-by-play announcer. Not from male colleagues, who supported her, but from fans and viewers. In both cities she dealt with serious push-back that got ugly.
She then became the first in Portland, Oregon. Ann Schatz broke the mold as the first female sportscaster in Omaha in the late 1970s. Women covering sports today is routine but not so long ago it was a rarity.
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