Robin Herman was amused by Don Cherry’s absurd and dated rant about how women reporters shouldn’t be allowed in the locker room.

Back in 1975, Herman became the first female reporter to covering the NHL. Only 23 at the time, she covered the beat for the New York Times.

In an open letter to Cherry on espnW, Herman called the former Boston Bruins coach her “hero.” Lo and behold, it turns out he was the first coach to allow her into the locker room.

I’d gotten a lot of publicity for breaking “the locker room barrier” at the 1975 NHL All-Star Game in Montreal, but that was a one-off. You were the first coach in the NHL to allow me, a female, accredited sports reporter and member of the Professional Hockey Writers’ Association, into your locker room as a matter of policy. You were coaching the “Big Bad Bruins,” and it was ironic that a team with that reputation should be the most forward-thinking in the NHL. Your PR man par excellence, Nate Greenberg, had persuaded you this was the way to go. I was The New York Times’ reporter on the NHL beat, after all, and Nate knew his job was to get great coverage of the Bruins. He and you were gentlemen. And GM Harry Sinden, as gruff and penny-pinching as he was, also had a heart of gold and a sense of what was right. The times they were a-changin’ then, and the Bruins organization was smart enough to realize it. You should be proud of what you did.

Herman concludes:

By the time I left The New York Times’ sports department in 1978, all but four teams in the NHL were allowing female reporters into locker rooms for postgame interviews. Shortly after that, open doors and equitable treatment of female reporters became league policy. The NHL was, in spite of itself, a leader in social change. And I was glad to see the NHL on Monday promptly reaffirm its open-access policy that has existed now for so many decades.

Remember, Don?

OK, I guess a lot of time has passed since then, and maybe you’ve forgotten the details. But I certainly wouldn’t forget the first coach and team to give equal access to a female member of the Professional Hockey Writers’ Association. Don, you were my hero.