Real Life: Black History Month Tribute - Jayne Kennedy

Girl crush?
Professional Hereon?
Yeah...all of that.

I remember the moment that I knew I wanted to be a sports presenter on TV.

The Best Damn Sports Show Period was exactly that and gorgeous Lisa Guerrero was doing her thing with the sports update. She was gorgeous and one of the guys at the same time. I wanted to be her.

It took some time, and hard work and hustle...but I finally made it into the business.

As I acquainted myself with the history of female sports journalists, I fell in love with this beauty...

Jayne Kennedy.

Wikipedia summarizes her like this:

Jayne Kennedy is an American actress, beauty pageant titleholder, and sportscaster. She won the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture award for 1981's Body and Soul.

Other parts of her bio read:

Jayne was crowned Miss Ohio USA 1970...During the 1970s, she had over 10 notable TV guest appearances, and roles in seven movies.

 But to me...when I watched the archives of her work, she means so much more. Especially as a sports anchor and reporter. In fact, she was so eloquent, charming and drop dead gorgeous, that all of the rest of us who are now in the path of the trail she blazed are just pretending sometimes. 

I'm not taking away from the work my comrades and I do, because believe me, it is not easy and there are a lot of unglamorous moments, but this lady was IT.

In 1978, she was one of the first women to infiltrate the male-dominated world of sports announcing with a role on The NFL Today.

And talk about being an overall threat!
In the early 1980s, she produced exercise videos

She did it all, and she was black.
She is a wonderful role model and I'm still chasing her pavement.

Who is your hero? Let us know and we'll post it here!