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BARBARA BORIN, PIONEER TV SPORTS ANCHOR

Born Barbara Levine March 6, 1949 in Miami, Florida, Barbara was the country's first female television sports anchor, on CBS affiliate WNAC, Channel 7, in Boston, Massachusetts, from 1972 to 1976.

After attending Miami Senior High School and Ohio University, Barbara began her career as Director of Advertising and Public Relations with Hotel Corporation of America, now known as Sonesta Hotels.

When WNAC launched a campaign to become the first local TV station with a female behind the Sports Desk, Barbara was chosen from among over 200 applicants. While welcomed and accommodated by 3 of the 4 major league Boston teams (the Red Sox, Celtics and Bruins), Barbara and WNAC successfully threatened to sue the Patriots and their Coach, Chuck Fairbanks, to gain access to the players immediately after games, in private facilities in or near the locker room. At the direction of the Patriots, a 9 officer police blockade had barred Barbara from gaining such access, which the Patriots had readily granted to her male counterparts for years. Johnny Carson made note of it the next night in his monologue on the Tonight Show.

Luminaries whose interviews by Barbara were broadcast by WNAC include Boston superstars Bobby Orr, Phil Esposito, Ted Williams, Carl Yastrzemski and John Havlicek, as well as Joe Namath, Billie Jean King, Chris Evert and Mickey Mantle.

Barbara later served as co-host of The Sports Gals, a weekly TV sports talk show on SportsChannel New England, from 1993 to 1995, along with Janet Prensky and Lisa Coles Guerrero.

Barbara subsequently moved to Portsmouth, New Hampshire and was married to Dan Franzoso, the Director of Golf at Wentworth By The Sea Country Club, who passed away in 2001 after a heroic, 4 year battle with brain cancer. She served as Chairman of the New Hampshire Commission on the Arts from 1978 to 1982; Trustee of Theatre By The Sea (now Seacoast Repertory Theatre) in Portsmouth from 1975 to 1984; Founding Director of the University of New Hampshire Pro-Am Golf Classic from 1980 to 1990; Founding Director of the New Hampshire Film Bureau, 1979; Corporator, Portsmouth Community Hospital, 1980; Deputy Executive Director, William J. Clinton Presidential Inaugural Committee, 1992 ; Community Advisory Board of New Hampshire Public Television, 1981 - 1995; Founding Director, The First Tee of New Hampshire, 2005 - 2015; Development Committee, Families First Health & Support Center, Portsmouth, NH, 2006 to present.

Barbara joined Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage, in Portsmouth, NH in 1982, and left that agency as Vice President in 2019. She is currently with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Verani Realty in Portsmouth.

Also known as Barbara Dunfey, and currently Barbara Franzoso, she is married to Robert LeGros, a retired attorney, and resides in Portsmouth.