There’s More Than Football on Air

No baseball, no hockey, but sports on television continue on.

Two important issues, gender equity and violence, will be examined in separate one-hour shows this weekend.

“Passion to Play: Stories of Women in Sports,” will be on ABC Sunday at 3 p.m. It is the first women’s sports special on network television since ABC showed “The Lady Is a Champ” in 1974.

CNN takes a look at the violence in and around sports with an excellent special, “Field of Screams,” on its weekly “CNN Presents,” which will be shown Sunday at 6 p.m. and again at 9 p.m.

The ABC special was produced by four women, Emile Deutsch, Nancy Stern, Donna de Varona and Tiffany Trigg. The host is Julie Moran, the first full-time female anchor of “Wide World of Sports.” It was co-written by de Varona and Peter Kaminsky, and de Varona is the reporter for a segment on Title IX.

De Varona, the first full-time female sportscaster in network television, was a co-host, along with Billie Jean King, of the 1974 special.

So how far have women come since then?

“There was no Olympic marathon back then, no women’s basketball on television, no women’s Final Four,” de Varona said from her office in New York.

“There has been improvement, but not enough in some areas.”

One of those areas is Title IX, the segment she deals with in Sunday’s special. Title IX was enacted by the federal government in 1972 to ensure gender equity in college athletics.

“Virtually every Division I school is in violation of Title IX,” de Varona said.

De Varona’s segment focuses on the case of former Auburn soccer player Susan Kiechel, who sued the school in 1993 for not making women’s soccer a varsity sport. The school settled the case in May for $140,000, with $80,000 going for attorney fees and the remaining $60,000 shared among Kiechel and her 17 teammates on Auburn’s women’s soccer club. This was the first Title IX case in which monetary damages were awarded.

Among those interviewed are tennis’ Martina Navratilova and King, auto racing’s Janet Guthrie, swimming’s Janet Evans, gymnastics’ Cathy Rigby and speedskating’s Bonnie Blair.

Lesley Visser, one of the first female sportswriters in the country, conducts a segment on myths and attitudes and the 1973 “Battle of the Sexes” between King and Bobby Riggs.

Cynthia Potter does a segment on barrier breakers. Gymnast Kathy Johnson looks at eating disorders. Charlsie Cantey profiles the first all-female America’s Cup team. And ESPN’s Robin Roberts, the third-leading scorer in women’s college basketball for Southeastern Louisiana, looks at opportunities for female athletes after college.

This is a special about women, but it is one that both men and woman can appreciate.

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The CNN special examines a wide range of violence in sports. CNN’s award-winning Jim Huber is the reporter, Bob Abbott the producer.

Abbott, Turner Broadcasting’s producer at the Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway, had planned to do a special on European soccer hooligans after the Games and tie it to the World Cup.

But soccer hooliganism ended up becoming a very small part of the special.

In one of the in-depth stories, Huber takes a look at the turmoil figure skating’s Katarina Witt went through for two years because of a stalker. Witt, in an interview Huber did at her home in Park City, Utah, goes into great detail about how the stalker, Harry Veltman of Westminster, made her life a living hell.

Veltman, 47 at the time, was arrested at his home on Dec. 26, 1992, the day before Witt was to perform at the Forum. Veltman had stalked Witt across two continents, threatening to break into her home outside Berlin and once invading her room in a Berlin hotel.

German police came on that occasion, and Witt had to translate for them. “They would say, ‘Ask him if he has a gun,’ and so I would say, ‘Do you have a gun?’ It was really bizarre,” she tells Huber.

Veltman was sentenced to 37 months of confinement in June, 1993. On Aug. 31, however, after serving his time in a psychiatric hospital, Veltman was released.

Another highlight of the special is an interview with World Series goat Mitch Williams at his ranch in Hico, Tex. Williams talks about the death threats he received after last year’s Series, in which he gave up the deciding home run to Toronto’s Joe Carter.

Professional bodyguard Nelson Mercado, profiled in a recent Times story by Chris Dufresne, is featured in one segment, the Monica Seles stabbing is dealt with in depth and new Laker Cedric Ceballos talks about the fear he experienced when a robber stuck a gun to his head.

It’s not an uplifting show, but it’s one worth watching.