As a child, Garber, a huge Knute Rockne fan, wrote letters to Notre Dame football players.

America's entry into World War II created a vacuum in the newspaper that enabled her to become a general assignment reporting.

[5] As a woman, Garber was not allowed into team locker rooms and had to wait outside the door, hoping to get quotes from coaches and players.

At North Carolina State games, a security guard named John Baker hauled athletes out of the lockers to make sure she got her quotes.

[7] In 1990, the Atlantic Coast Conference established the Mary Garber Award, to honor the top female athlete in the ACC each year.

[1] In 2005 Garber became the first woman to receive the Associated Press Sports Editors (APSE) Red Smith Award.

[9] Garber recounted her life and career in a series of interviews for the Washington Press Club Foundation's Women in Journalism Oral History Project.