New York Times hockey reporter Robin Herman was a trailblazer, breaking down gender barriers by becoming the first female journalist to interview players inside a men’s professional sports locker room in the U.S.
On Tuesday, her husband former Times editor Paul Horvitz told the newspaper that she passed away from ovarian cancer.
She was 70.
Herman began covering the New York Islanders in 1974. Female sports reporters during that time were not allowed to enter a professional men's locker room like their male counterparts to interview players after games.
That all changed in 1975 when Herman and local radio reporter Marcelle St. Cyr were granted permission by the team's coaches to enter the locker rooms following the NHL All-Star Game in Montreal.
Herman recalled the event for an article for The Times several weeks later, saying the "mini sports history” moment, which she had hoped would go unnoticed turned into a “circus scene," the Associated Press reported.
She later went on to cover other things for the newspaper, while also making stops at The Washington Post. She also wrote a book and taught at Harvard.
According to The Boston Globe, Herman will be laid to rest at a cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts.