Eleanor Sanger

Eleanor Sanger
Eleanor Sanger
	Emmy Awards, Smith College Medal

Eleanor Sanger (September 15, 1929 – March 7, 1993) was a 7-time Emmy-award-winning television writer and producer, who was the first woman Network Sports Producer.^[1]

"Women television producers are still as rare as Howard Cosell's silences, but at least one has begun to break through the double barriers of televised sports. That rarity is Eleanor (Sanger) Riger, the lone distaff on any network sports team." The New York Times, January 8, 1974.^[1]

Background and education

Born in

Buckingham Browne & Nichols School. In 1950 Sanger graduated Phi Beta Kappa, magna cum laude from Smith College, with a degree in Government. In 1952 she completed post-graduate work at the Russian Institute (now The Harriman Institute), at Columbia University.^[2]

Early career

From 1957-60, Sanger was the Manager of Public Affairs, at Station

Big horn sheep themselves.^[4]

First woman sports producer

It took a

ABC Sports as a full-fledged Producer, Writer, and Director in 1973; a post she held full-time through 1986. This assignment began in 1974 with a focus on women in sports, including a $200,000 prime-time Women's Sports special sponsored by Colgate, narrated by Dinah Shore, featuring Billie Jean King, Olga Korbut, jockey Robin Smyth and The Princess Anne. Sanger's association with women's sports continued, including her mentoring of other women in the business, passing along her belief that you could succeed without imitating your male counterparts.^[1]

Interviewed in 1974 by the New York Times, Sanger's closing quote was "I'll leave the football games to the guys," she said, "They do them fine." She had it wrong, eventually winning an Emmy Award for her coverage of

Scottish Highland Games) that Sanger didn't produce. In addition, Sanger's trips to China and North Korea covering ping pong tournaments, made her a unique academic resource on how the Western media was treated early on.^[1]

Emmy Award-winning Olympic Games

Sanger received six

Olympics: 1968 – Grenoble, France and Mexico City, Mexico; 1976, Innsbruck, Austria and Montreal, Canada; 1984 – Sarajevo, Yugoslavia and Los Angeles, California. Producer Winter Olympics 1980, Lake Placid, USA. Producer Bobsled and Luge competition, 1988, Calgary, Canada. Producer Equestrian Events, NBC Sports, Summer Olympics, Seoul South Korea, 1988.^[5]

Smith College Medal

Sanger received the Smith College Medal in 1982, awarded to "those alumnae who, in the judgment of the trustees, exemplify in their lives and work the true purpose of a liberal arts education." From 1991 to 1993 Sanger sat on the Smith College Medal Committee. Sanger's papers are part of the Sophia Smith Collection at Smith.^[6]

Sanger was a member of the Advisory Board of the

Ms. Magazine (1972), and on the Advisory Board of the National Women's Conference to Prevent Nuclear War (1974). Finally, she was Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Media Arts Department at the University of Arizona

from 1990 to 1993. [7]