For nearly half a century, Lesley Visser has reported on the sidelines of some of the most high-profile sporting events, and now she’s further cementing her own legacy in history books. Deadline reports that the sportscaster has been named as the 2020 recipient of the Sports Lifetime Achievement Award from the Sports Emmy Awards. She’ll be the first woman to take home the honor. The trailblazer will accept the award at the 41st annual ceremony, set to be held April 28 in New York.
Already the member of six halls of fame, Visser was “the first woman inducted into the NFL’s shrine and the first to cover the league as a beat,” the source details. “Her 45-year career of ‘firsts’ also includes breaking the gender barriers for NFL sideline reporters, reporting for Monday Night Football, covering the World Series, and covering the NBA for a network.”
Visser initially joined CBS in 1983. After stints at ABC and ESPN, she rejoined CBS Sports in 2000 and has remained there since.
“Early in her career, she worked in press boxes with a credential that read, ‘No women or children,'” Deadline reveals. She’s “the only sportscaster — male or female — to have worked on network broadcasts of the Final Four, the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the Olympics, the World Series, the Triple Crown, the World Figure Skating Championship, and the US Open Tennis.”
“To be a pioneer at nearly every juncture of sports reporting isn’t easy despite how Lesley Visser makes it look,” said Justine Gubar, Executive Director of the Sports Emmy Awards. “Lesley has spent her career serving as an unparalleled role model and mentor to countless up-and-coming journalists including myself.”
Sean McManus, Chairman of CBS Sports added, “For 45 years Lesley Visser has been a leader and trailblazer in both print and television journalism. Very few people have had the word ‘first’ attached to them throughout their career as much as Lesley, and even fewer have created a place in an industry that never existed. … There is no one more deserving to be honored as the first woman to receive the Sports Emmy Award for Lifetime Achievement.”
Visser has mentored young women for decades. Check out a video biography of her below. “When I was 10 years old, I said to my mother, ‘You know what? I want to be a sportswriter,'” Visser recalls in the clip. “[Mom] said, ‘That’s great. Sometimes you have to cross when it says don’t walk.'”
Visser released her memoir,”Sometimes You Have to Cross When it Says Don’t Walk,” in 2017.
