Trailblazing Sports Illustrated reporter Jane Gross, who paved the way for female sports journalists as the first female sports writer to access a professional basketball locker room for a post-game interview in 1975, died on Wednesday, Nov. 9, in New York City. The New York Times stated that, according to her brother and sole immediate survivor Michael Gross, several falls culminated in a traumatic brain injury that led to her death at age 75.