What does it take for a young woman to succeed in the male-dominated field of sports journalism? It takes perseverance, hard work, knowledge, and definitely a love of the game. It also, requires the skills of consideration for the opinions and feelings of others while, standing up to the ignorance and negativity of peers, players, and fans.
All challenges our featured Queen in Heels, Pam Oliver, has met and managed to succeed in overcoming, from racism to sexism, to become one of the top woman sportscasters on television.
Pam Oliver was born on March 10, 1961 in Dallas, Texas. Her father,was a master sergeant in the U.S. Air Force and because of this the family moved frequently, she has lived in Texas, Michigan, Washington, California and Florida.
When Pam was in high school her family moved to Niceville, Florida, where Pam excelled in track, basketball and tennis at Niceville High School. Pam attended Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU) in Tallahassee on a sports scholarship in track. She chose to attend FAMU, because it was a historically black college and, after an isolated childhood and graduating from a largely white high school, she wanted to connect with her culture.
While at FAMU, Pam set the school record for the 400 mile relay and she qualified for the trails for the U.S. Olympic track team, but decided to give up her track career to pursue her journalism career. After graduating in 1984, she worked at a department store while volunteering as a community affairs reporter for a local public access television station, it was at the suggestion of a former FAMU teacher, that Pam applied for a news reporter job at Albany, Georgia’s WALB-TV, and got the job.
For the next eight years Pam worked at WAAY-TV in Huntsville, Alabama, WIVB-TV in Buffalo, New York, KHOU-TV in Houston, Texas, and WTVT-TV in Tampa, Florida building her news reporter and anchor career, but what she really wanted to do was be a sports reporter. At WTVT-TV in Tampa, she finally achieved her dream as a sports anchor.
She worked at Houston’s KHOU-TV as the sports anchor where she was discovered by ESPN in 1993. In 1995 she was hired by Fox Sports where she anchored the Southern Sports Report and Southern Sports Tonight, as well as appearing as sideline anchor for all National Football League (NFL) broadcasts. In 2005, Pam joined TNT as a sideline reporter for the National Basketball League (NBA) Playoffs coverage.
Pam Oliver continues to return to FAMU, offering her experiences to help the next generation of students following in her footsteps.
Beautiful, intelligent, and fearless in pursuing her dream, are all reasons why Pam Oliver is truly a Queen in Heels.
