Sports Reel

Bobbie Rosenfeld, 1904 – 1969

The only woman on the Globe and Mail sports staff, Rosenfeld was one of a small but prominent group of female sportswriters across the country. Other Canadian columnists included old friends like fellow runner Myrtle Cook and Alexandrine Gibb, coach of the 1928 Olympic track team.

For eighteen years, Rosenfeld covered women's sports with wit and "refreshing candor." She celebrated female pioneers in everything from bowling to rodeo riding, and wrote with authority on softball, basketball, hockey, track- all the fields she had once dominated. Along the way she mocked herself and most everyone else, recommended taffy and orange juice to cure hangovers, and occasionally reminisced about the golden age of girls sports, "when the Cook and the Rosenfeld held sway... (kind of snooty, eh!)"

But perhaps more importantly, Rosenfeld used her column to advocate for women athletes. She debunked the sexist attacks that insisted women looked, "better with a frying pan than a tennis racquet." She encouraged girl's sports in the schools, asserting that, "competition when properly organized and directed has a contribution to make to the education of women." Throughout the years, Rosenfeld continued to remind a too-often forgetful public that girls were "in sports for good."