Ina Eloise Young
Ina Eloise Young (February 22, 1881, Brownwood, Texas – May 2, 1949, Arlington, Virginia) is widely regarded to have been the first American woman sports editor when she started working as 'sporting editor' for The Chronicle-News of Trinidad, Colorado in 1906.
At the time, Trinidad was a thriving mining town and attending a baseball game was a popular pastime for the populace of ~10,000.
[1][3]Alfred Damon Runyon, who himself had been the sporting editor of The Rocky Mountain News in Denver, Colorado tried to establish a professional baseball league in Colorado in 1907 by attracting talented amateurs from around the country to play against some of the established teams in the state.
On one side was Battling Nelson, the man of jabs and uppercuts, on the other side was Miss Ina E. Young, representing a Trinidad, Colo. newspaper...Miss Young proved an excellent scorer, was familiar with every inside play and surprised me with the knowledge of the game.
The lady was making a tour of the east reporting the important baseball and football games for the enterprising Colorado papers.
"[7] After the Cub's series victory in 1908, treasurer Tim Murnane of the newly formed Baseball Writers Association nominated Ina as an honorary member.
In covering events that happen in the mining camps around here a horse is the quickest method of transportation.
"[3] Ina played basketball and fenced at the University of Colorado at Boulder but despite good grades, left college and began working at the Chronicle-News in Trinidad.
In 1904, she met her future husband Carleton Kelley, a National Guardsman, while covering a miners strike.
When five years ago I left college and began newspaper work, they set me to doing society.
But when they promoted me to suicides, murders, mine explosions and such things I breathed a silent prayer of thanksgiving.
They give me a big salary, six weeks vacation, my expenses paid all over with the ball team, and as courteous, considerate treatment, commend me to the sporting fraternity.
