Pictured, my autographed loot from a day spent with the doughty women of the All American Girls Professional Baseball League. These World War II era athletes were made known to new generations through Penny Marshall’s great movie, “A League of Their Own” (1992). Six of the “Girls,” now in their 80s, were on campus this week for the Sport & Society conference. In fact, they’ll be the subject of a feature in our summer issue, which is how I got to spend the day hearing their stories. They told us, they just wanted to play ball – they had no idea they were breaking new ground for women athletes to come. One of the six, who became Sister Toni Ann Palermo, S.S.S.F., in later years, said she was so busy doing God’s work, she didn’t even see the movie until 2003!
Watch for the story in the next magazine, out at the end of June.
