Jane Chastain worked as a sportscaster, but she wasn’t just any sportscaster. Chastain was the first national female sports commentator.
Born in Knoxville, Tennessee, Chastain’s family moved to Smyrna, Georgia. Soon, she was in modeling classes and went on to model in the Atlanta area. Chastain parlayed modeling work into a television career, thinking she would focus on children’s programming. But sports is where she made her name in a career that began in 1963.
WAGA-TV put out a call for a young woman to play the part of a football coach and make weekly game predictions. Chastain got the part and was good at it, too–so much so that a Toronto newspaper asked her to predict the winner of the Grey Cup (Canadian pro football championship). Chastain took the gig and made the right call, picking the underdog win.
She got more attention while doing a show with an unusual title, The Jane Chastain Show: Everything You’ve Wanted to Know About Sports but Were Afraid to Ask. That exposure led to an offer from CBS, and history was made on October 13, 1974, when Chastain became the first female NFL commentator alongside Don Criqui and Ivy Cross.
She expanded her repertoire in the 1980s by commenting and writing about politics. That effort included hosting the radio program entitled What Washington Doesn’t Want You to Know. Chastain has also written several books about politics. Now 80 years old, Chastain is still active, writing for a Conservative blog and writing books with a strong political slant.
But she’s most known for her history-making role in the NFL.
