Female Sports Executives: Going, Going, Gone?

In the span of three years, the sports world has lost a handful of pioneering female executives from the ranks of very few.

Marge Schott, the cantankerous and often controversial owner of the Cincinnati Reds, died in 2004. She was the first woman to buy—rather than inherit—a major league baseball team.

Susan O’Malley became the first female president of a major professional sports franchise when she was selected in 1991 to helm the Washington Bullets (later known as the Wizards). O’Malley was only 29 when she was elevated to her post as right-hand woman to owner Abe Pollin. She resigned last June, although she still consults with the organization.

And on Friday, Georgia Frontiere, the owner of the St. Louis Rams, passed away. She was 80. Frontiere took over the team after the untimely death of her sixth husband, Carroll Rosenbloom, in 1979. Under her leadership, the Rams made the playoffs 13 times and advanced to three Super Bowls.

For years, women have been making strides in key positions in sports and other male-dominated areas as well as with Fortune 500 companies. And to be fair, there are still a number of women executives playing significant roles in sports, most notably Sheila Johnson, co-owner/partner of the Washington Capitals, Mystics and Wizards, and Jeanie Buss, executive vice president of business operations for the Los Angeles Lakers. Is there always room for more? I hope so, particularly in the NFL.

With Frontiere’s death, the city of St. Louis will have a lot to miss. She lived a colorful life—she was married seven times and once worked as a chorus girl. But she also was a pivotal businesswoman, a philanthropist and the owner of an NFL team.

Most of all, she was the lady amongst the NFL’s men.