Yvonne Terry Betowt
Class of 2016
Yvonne Terry Betowt broke barriers in Alabama journalism at a time when sports departments across the country were overwhelmingly male. As the first full-time female sports writer at one of Alabama’s major daily newspapers, she helped open doors for women in sports media while building a distinguished career at The Huntsville Times that spanned more than three decades.
A native of Tuscaloosa and a graduate of Holt High School, Betowt developed a love for sports early in life. By her early teens she was reading the sports pages of The Tuscaloosa News daily, fascinated by the stories and statistics. Realizing her writing talents exceeded her athletic abilities, she set her sights on becoming a sports writer—an almost unheard-of ambition for a woman in the mid-1970s.
After graduating from the University of Alabama, Betowt joined The Huntsville Times in the summer of 1976, hired by sports editor John Pruett. Though the idea of a woman in the sports department was new to many readers and colleagues, Betowt quickly proved she belonged. She covered high school, college and professional sports across North Alabama, often reporting on local prep games on Friday nights before working major Southeastern Conference football games the following day.
Over 15 years in sports, she became a respected presence in press boxes throughout the region. She also helped establish the Association for Women in Sports Media and in 1980 served as a panelist at the National Sportswriters Association convention in Philadelphia, discussing the evolving role of women in sports journalism. Her reporting earned multiple awards from the Alabama Sports Writers Association for high school coverage.
Betowt later transitioned to become The Huntsville Times Religion Editor from 1990 to 2005, where she developed a weekly section that grew from two pages to as many as eight. Her work was repeatedly recognized among the nation’s top religion sections.
Betowt retired in 2012 after 36 years with the newspaper, leaving a legacy of professionalism and pioneering leadership in Alabama journalism.
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