About Sally Jenkins

By Brian Compere and Rhiannon Walker

Sally Jenkins was born in Fort Worth, Texas. After graduating from Stanford University in 1982, Jenkins spent time at The San Francisco Chronicle, the San Francisco Examiner and the Los Angeles Herald Examiner before moving to the east coast as a staff writer for The Washington Post in 1984.

After starting out covering the men’s water polo team, she became the sports section’s co-editor in 1981 and 1982. Jenkins oversaw the department during John Elway’s quarterbacking the Stanford football team. After graduating, she held myriad writing positions, even working as an assistant to the gossip columnist at the Los Angeles Examiner for a year. She got early experience covering high school sports for the San Francisco Examiner during this time, as well.

She joined The Washington Post in 1984, covering Navy, the University of Maryland, national college football and professional sports. She spent more than a year covering the death of Len Bias and its aftermath. Jenkins left The Post for Sports Illustrated in 1990 and, in 1996, she wrote “Men Will Be Boys: The Modern Woman Explains Football and Other Amusing Male Rituals,” which addressed the topic of women in sports.

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