Helene Elliott, one of the first women to cover the NHL and the first female journalist to be honored in the Hall of Fame of a major professional sport, is the Association for Women in Sports Media’s 2024 recipient of the Mary Garber Pioneer Award.
The AWSM Pioneer award has been given annually since 1999 to individuals who have distinguished themselves in the sports media field while reflecting and advancing the values and mission of AWSM. The award was named in 2006 for Garber, one of the industry’s original pioneers. Recent recipients include Pam Oliver, Johnette Howard, Doris Burke, Andrea Kremer and Jackie MacMullan.
"Helene Elliott is a trailblazer who battled sexism throughout her career, always remaining focused on chasing her next story. She took joy in proving her critics wrong during an award-winning career," said Iliana Limón Romero, AWSM president and assistant managing editor for sports at the Los Angeles Times. "She has been generous with her time, offering words of encouragement to women who have often felt isolated in press boxes and locker rooms.
"I am certain her refusal to leave the industry amid pressure she faced in the field and in various newsrooms helped make it possible for me to become the first woman to serve as sports editor at the Los Angeles Times."
Elliott was the 2005 winner of the Hockey Hall's Elmer Ferguson Award. A past president of the Professional Hockey Writers' Association, she has mentored numerous female sports reporters, especially those with an interest in hockey.
She began her career at the Chicago Sun-Times before working at Newsday. She joined the Los Angeles Times in 1989, moving from a focus on hockey to general sports columnist before retiring in February after 34 years at the paper. A New York native and Northwestern graduate, Elliott has covered 20 Olympics.
Elliott's decision to retire came soon after her beloved husband Dennis D'Agostino's death in September. D’Agostino worked for the Associated Press before joining the New York Knicks and Mets public relations departments. After marrying Elliott and moving to California to support her career, D'Agostino was a fixture at Southern California games while working as an NBA and MLB statistician.
He was Elliott's biggest fan and would have heartily cheered her Pioneer Award win.
"I can tell you why Helene is a Hall of Famer, because I’ve seen it every day for the last six years: Tenaciousness. A near-obsession with thoroughness and accuracy. A crisp, vivid writing style that makes the story come alive. The total respect she has earned from owners, executives, coaches and players. An unceasing work ethic and a years-long cultivation of rock-solid sources," D'Agostino wrote for the L.A. Times when Elliott was inducted in the Hockey Hall of Fame.
"Helene tends to downplay her role as one of the pioneer female journalists in American sports. But make no mistake, when she and her sisters were starting out in the late 1970s, many locker room doors and press boxes were still closed except by court order.
"In a 1978 interview in People magazine (from which she was bumped from the cover in favor of Lenny and Squiggy), she said, 'Women have enough constraints without being made to stand outside for two hours before we can see the players.' But she added, 'Imagine getting paid to do all the things my parents yelled at me not to do.' So as far as her legacy as a trailblazer, let’s just say that my wife has done a lot of things simply because people told her she couldn’t. (I hope marrying me wasn’t one of them.)"
AWSM’s top award winners, including Elliott, will be invited to speak during an AWSM digital event this fall and will be honored in person during the organization’s 2025 convention.
