Terry Taylor, who as the primary — and solely — lady to be named the sports activities editor of The Associated Press introduced a tireless administration fashion to protecting the Olympics, the World Cup and leagues and groups worldwide, died on Nov. 14 at her dwelling in Paoli, Pa. She was 71.

Tony Rentschler, her husband and solely quick survivor, mentioned the trigger was breast most cancers, which was identified in 2013.

Ms. Taylor turned the wire service’s sports activities editor in 1992, 15 years after she was employed. Over the subsequent 21 years within the job she turned identified for elevating the journalistic requirements of her reporters and editors; stressing the significance of investigative tales, in-depth options and sharp commentary; and coaxing reporters to search for information that went past scores and on-field motion.

“She was the most focused journalist I’ve ever worked with,” mentioned Tom Curley, the president and chief govt of The A.P. from 2003 to 2012. “She seemingly worked around the clock. You could trust everything on the sports wire, but if there was a mistake, she was on the case like nobody else.”

Louis D. Boccardi, who appointed Ms. Taylor sports activities editor when he was the company’s president and chief govt, recalled in a telephone interview that there had been some shock when the job went to a girl.

“She was creative, aggressive and innovative, and had the toughness the job required, invading a male preserve,” he mentioned. “People caught on quickly that she was in charge.”

Terry Rosalind Taylor was born on Oct. 4, 1952, in Valley Forge, Pa., and raised in Chester, Pa. Her mom, Ann (Bystrek) Taylor, was an administrative assistant for the Internal Revenue Service. She divorced Terry’s father, Thomas Taylor, when Terry was about 4 years previous, and he left their lives.

An solely little one, Terry performed baseball, soccer and hockey together with her sports-loving cousins, who lived subsequent door. She avidly learn Sports Illustrated and the sports activities pages of an area newspaper, The Delaware County Daily Times.

At Temple University in Philadelphia, she labored for the campus newspaper and graduated with a bachelor’s diploma in journalism in 1974.

Her first job after faculty was at The Charlotte News in North Carolina, the place she coated schooling through the week and did rewrite work on sports activities articles on Saturdays. She joined The A.P., in Philadelphia, in 1977.

It was the start of a 35-year love affair with the wire service.

“You handle everything from train wrecks to mob killings to Phillies games,” she mentioned in an interview in 2014 with the Shirley Povich Center for Sports Journalism on the University of Maryland. “You did everything. It was enormously valuable training for me.”

She moved to The A.P.’s New York workplace in 1981 and coated determine skating on the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo. She rose to deputy sports activities editor in 1987. She left to affix The New York Times as an assistant sports activities editor in 1990 however stayed for lower than a yr, returning to The A.P. — as a result of, Mr. Rentschler mentioned, she missed its sooner tempo.

During her A.P. profession she labored on location at 15 Olympics, all however one as an editor, concluding with the 2012 Summer Games in London. She retired the subsequent yr.

Christine Brennan, a sports activities columnist for USA Today and chairwoman of the board of the Association for Women in Sports Media, mentioned in a textual content, “Terry’s hiring and success certainly was part of a wonderful historic trend of women becoming more respected throughout sports journalism.”

Roxanna Scott is the sports activities editor of USA Today, and Iliana Limón Romero has that position at The Los Angeles Times. Mary Byrne had additionally been USA Today’s sports activities editor. In 1978, Le Anne Schreiber turned the primary lady to run a serious American each day newspaper’s sports activities division when The New York Times appointed her to the job.

In 2016, Ms. Taylor acquired the Association for Women in Sports Media’s Mary Garber Pioneer Award, named after a pioneering feminine sportswriter whose profession started within the Forties, when ladies have been barred from press bins and locker rooms. in 2018, Associated Press Sports Editors gave her the Red Smith Award, named after the Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times sports columnist.

After the 1993 Super Bowl in Pasadena, Calif., a rumor swept amongst A.P. reporters there that Marv Levy, the coach of the Buffalo Bills, who had misplaced the sport to the Dallas Cowboys, 52-17, had had a coronary heart assault. As reporters frantically checked with hearth and police departments within the space, Ms. Taylor requested, “Did anybody think to try calling his hotel?”

“When Levy picked up the phone and assured The A.P. he was fine,” an A.P. article in regards to the incident mentioned, “she just laughed and announced, ‘Enough excitement for the moment. Now everybody get back to the follow-ups.’”