CLEVELAND, Ohio – Watching the NFL in the late 1970s wasn’t like it is today – no internet, no cable contracts and definitely no flashy graphics. If you tuned in, there was a good chance you were watching Brent Musburger anchor what would be the prototypical studio show, CBS’ “The NFL Today,” with former player Irv Cross as analyst and Jimmy the Greek offering predictions in his unpolished manner. But the other face viewers saw then was an anomaly with sports coverage, an African-American woman named Jayne Kennedy.
Kennedy’s life covers an extensive, diverse resume. Now 73, her memoir “Plain Jayne” is being released today – Tuesday, Sept. 2. The title is a misnomer, because she is anything but plain.
Kennedy was raised in Wickliffe, and memories of growing up among six kids in her family during her formative years resonate strongly with her.
“Some people say, ‘Why do you spend so much time on that part of your life in this book, why don’t you tell all Hollywood?’” she told cleveland.com. “But I had to tell that because this is who I am. That’s one of the reasons why the book says ‘Plain Jayne.’ Because it’s me at my core. My core is the way I grew up, the way my family raised me. The person I became is someone who is not a nasty, evil person.”
As she writes in the book: “Wickliffe would always be my home base, my safe haven.”
Her approachable memoir takes the reader from Northeast Ohio to life on both coasts. It was a project that dates back 25 years.
Years ago, she was doing a television show with psychic Kenny Kingston, who insisted: “You know who wants you to write this book? Your grandmother.”
“It took my breath away,” she said of the woman she was named after and who had passed years before.
The groundbreaking TV personality and businesswoman shares her journey from Wickliffe to becoming one of the first Black women in sports television.
Jayne Kennedy at the Emmys in 1980.Associated Press
She had plenty of material to write about, which created the conundrum of what to take out. Some memoirs drone on with authors stuck in self-aggrandizing ways, but Kennedy offers honest takes on what she has accomplished and endured. And she has tried to stay humble.
“Even when I won Miss Ohio, I didn’t realize I won. I never see myself as ‘Oh Jayne, you’re all that.’ I’ve never been that type of person.” In fact, when she heard “The new Miss Ohio is Jayne Harrison,” she looked around saying, “Who’s going to win, who’s going to win? My sister had to nudge me, ‘Jayne, you won.’ I’ve always kept my feet on the ground.”
“I made a promise to myself that I would never become anyone but Jayne from Wickliffe, Ohio.”
She grew up idolizing Shirley Chisholm, the first Black woman to become a U.S. congresswoman, and whom she had a chance to meet in Cleveland. She mulled a career in drama or politics. She modeled as a teen, did television commercials in Cleveland and spent eight years as an actress. When she heard about the opening on “NFL Today” she thought: “I can do this job.”
But when pushed for an audition she was told, “They’re not looking for anyone like you.” Translated: They wanted a journalist, and they wanted a white woman. She was undeterred and found an end run to get a seat at the table: She called Jim Brown, who made a call on her behalf. That led to a meeting where she found herself in a room of 16 finalists for the job – and the list started with 2,000 applicants.
It was Kennedy and 16 blonde women. But she was there, she took a breath and let the pressure relax her. Set-up trial interviews gave applicants very little time to get ready. She found her subject and, instead of launching into a Q and A to prepare, they played backgammon, a favorite game of hers. It relaxed them both.
“I said, ‘I’m just going to be me, I don’t have to exaggerate, I don’t have to prove anything.’ ”
But that interview process went well, and then came a huge vote of confidence.
The groundbreaking TV personality and businesswoman shares her journey from Wickliffe to becoming one of the first Black women in sports television.
The cast of CBS's "NFL Today" show are shown in this undated photo. Clockwise from top left: Jimmy "The Greek" Snyder, Jack Whitaker, Brent Musburger, Jayne Kennedy and Irv Cross.Associated Press
Musburger stood up and said: “It’s Jayne or nobody.”
In her career she had the chance to interview boxing promoter Don King (“quite a character”) and Minnesota Fats (“my dad’s big hero”). But one of the most pivotal figures who became an ally was Muhammad Ali.
Once, for an Ali-Joe Frazier fight, she jumped a fence in Cleveland State to see the close-circuit telecast.
“They oversold the tickets so the people in the front were trying to get out and all the people in the back were trying to get in. And there were tons of people and everybody was pushing, pushing, pushing. And they had glass windows, and we ended up being pushed through the glass window.”
She came out unscathed. She would forge a friendship with the great fighter, one that would serve her well in her nascent days at CBS.
Her initial contract was only for six weeks as a sort of test. She was in her second week and landed in New York before Ali’s famed rematch with Leon Spinks in New Orleans.
She heard a gaggle of CBS staffers frustrated they didn’t have an interview lined up with Ali. She ducked in and said: “I can get you the interview.”
“They actually looked at me and said, ‘Who are you?’”
The groundbreaking TV personality and businesswoman shares her journey from Wickliffe to becoming one of the first Black women in sports television.
A young Jayne Kennedy with Muhammad Ali.Associated Press
“I wanted to prove to them, ‘I can do this, hire me for the year.’ They weren’t paying me much anyway. I can take any risk.”
She convinced the network to fly her to New Orleans, and she landed the interview.
“Next day,” she said, “I had my contract.”
Her resourcefulness wasn’t a one-off. She found ways to survive and advance. Early on, CBS didn’t pay for her wardrobe, so she cut a deal: If I find a boutique that provides my outfit, will you give them credit? The network agreed, and that’s how a black-owned business in Manhattan, Zagobi Boutique, landed a line in the credits every week before millions of football fans.
Football was, and is, a passion for Kennedy with an odd trio of favorites: The Cleveland Browns, Pittsburgh Steelers and Dallas Cowboys.
She remembers a main road near her home with “every door having brown paper on it for the Cleveland Browns.” Kennedy also wound up working for the Browns’ youth programs for about a year before leaving for Los Angeles after she won Miss Ohio in 1970.
For the Steelers, the vaunted Steel Curtain grabbed her attention, and over the years quarterback Terry Bradshaw became a good friend.
Then there were the Cowboys, a team that drew her affinity after a cousin took her to an ice cream shop. The cousin’s boyfriend, who played for Dallas, bought her a banana ice cream float. He also bought a fan for life, she said.
The groundbreaking TV personality and businesswoman shares her journey from Wickliffe to becoming one of the first Black women in sports television.
Jayne Kennedy, holding her daughter Savannah Re Overton, speaks at a press conference for Children’s Peace Journey in San Francisco in 1986.Associated Press
Through all of her jobs and interests she knew one thing to be true: She had to commit to whatever she wanted to do – singer, dancer, product girl on Johnny Carson, background dancer, actress, journalist, businesswoman.
“I had no hesitation in my mind,” she said. “None whatsoever.”
That quiet confidence came when few women were on the sidelines and fewer in the studio, unlike today with multiple networks and websites covering every angle of every game.
“I think you have to be totally persistent,” she offers as advice to young women. “You cannot let anyone tell you no.”
Her life and interests are as varied as her resume, an innate inquisitiveness helping her as a journalist. She enjoyed the Beatles. She was an early exercise entrepreneur, producing and starring in “Love Your Body” videos.
She also sewed. Her mother taught all the girls in the family how to sew. By the time Jayne Harrison got to home economics in high school she was a pro. She was given three months to make an apron; it took her two days. Years later, she got a last-minute ticket to the Oscars. In two days she crafted an outfit.
She’s still going strong, an elegant 73. She makes fine jewelry and has a fragrance coming out. And she has started a company called, appropriately, Not Done Yet – her life’s mantra.
“I’d like for people to know that I opened doors for many to follow in,” she said. “It might be trite to say that because a lot of people do say that. But I can see the actual doors that I did open.”
By Jayne Kennedy, Andscape Books, 384 pages. $28.99.
More info: Jayne Kennedy on Facebook
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