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On the 21st of May 1990, the following appeared in The Independent.

There was a landmark in British television history on BBC 1 this Saturday.

Instead of the usual golf club leisure wear, the Grandstand presenter was wearing a well-tailored suit. This was such a couture shock. It wasn't

until the slow motion replay that the cascading brunette tresses over the lapels

alerted me to the second breakthrough.

Across the decades, the presenter's chair has crackled to the static electricity of

Franks and Desi's crumpling slacks.

Now, for the first time, it was occupied by, uh, not to put too fine a point on it,

a woman. Good afternoon. Nice to be with you. After a frantic week of football, we're

calming down just a little this afternoon. Not completely, we've got plenty of

soccer action, but we're concentrating on horse racing and tennis. That was Helen Rollison in 1990 when she became the

first woman to present Grandstand BBC One's flagship sports program at the time.

Choosing her is Ruth Holdaway, who's the chief executive of women in sport,

an organization that champions the rights of women and girls

to take part in and benefit from sport.

Now, why have you chosen a broadcaster rather than a prominent sportswoman?

Well, I think I feel that I have both personal and professional

connections to Helen actually and when I was asked if I would like to take part in this show, she was the first person that came to mind very spontaneously.

And at women in sport, we are working hard to encourage more women and girls to play sport, but we're also trying to change

the environment in which sport happens and we want sport to be open to women as much as it is to men in every aspect of the industry.

So broadcasting and sports journalism is a really important aspect of what we do

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