In a League of Her Own: Lillian “Pete” Campbell

 

Lillian “Pete” Shadic Campbell of the Springfield Sallies

Our June post was inspired by the 50^th anniversary of the Education Amendments Act of 1972, signed into law by President Richard Nixon. The Act’s most famous provision, known as Title IX, required schools and colleges receiving federal assistance to treat men and women equally in academics and athletics.

We’d been given a 1938 issue of the Roe-Jan News, the school paper of the Roeliff Jansen Central School, and noted that its sports page covered only the boys’ teams. A reader named John Magisano advised us to look up the story of Lillian Shadic, a girl who played on the Roe Jan High School’s boys’ baseball team in the 1940s. We did, and decided Lillian deserved a post of her own.

But first, let’s back up for a little pre-Title IX history.

After Pearl Harbor in December 1941, young men 18 years of age and over were being drafted into the armed services, including some 500 professional baseball players. Concerned that the major leagues would suspend play during the war, Chicago Cubs owner and chewing gum magnate Philip Wrigley and Brooklyn Dodgers executive Branch Rickey drew up a charter for what would become the “All-American Girls Professional Baseball League” (AAGPBL). From 1943 until its dissolution in 1954, AAGPBL grew from a stopgap wartime entertainment to a professional showcase for women baseball players that at its peak in 1948 drew over one million fans.

Philip K. Wrigley (L) and Branch Rickey. Rickey was no stranger to progressive thinking. In 1947, he signed Jackie Robinson to play first base for the Dodgers, finally integrating Major League Baseball.

The league was the inspiration for the hit 1992 movie A League of Their Own, starring Geena Davis, Madonna and Tom Hanks.

The AAGPBL was a product of its time.  Femininity was a high priority and players were required to adhere to the League’s strict “Rules of Conduct.” (“ALWAYS appear in feminine attire when not actively engaged in practice or playing ball.” “Boyish bobs are not permissible and in general your hair should be well groomed at all times with longer hair preferable to short hair cuts. Lipstick should always be on.”)

The players, many of whom had never been further than the limits of their small towns, were expected to “Play like Gehrig and look like Garbo.” They attended nightly “Charm School” for drilling in etiquette, beauty techniques, feminine mannerisms, and appropriate dress. Long pants were strictly forbidden, as was smoking, cursing and drinking. Team uniforms were short-sleeved dresses, satin shorts, knee-high socks, and one-size-fits-all baseball hats.

Typical AAGPBL Uniform

The players themselves hated the uniforms. The flared skirt inhibited pitchers during their windup, and the skirts were so short that the girls would get painful “strawberries” when they slid.

But let’s get back to the hometown heroine of this story: Lillian “Pete” Shadic was born on June 14, 1929, in Chatham, the daughter of Everett and Frances (Stupplebeen) Shadic Sr. An accomplished athlete in softball, baseball, basketball, and bowling, “Pete” (a childhood nickname that stayed with her for the rest of her life) excelled on the ball field and played right field on the Roe Jan Central School’s boys’ baseball team in the mid-1940s.

Pete’s father saw a newspaper ad recruiting players for the AAGPBL and urged her to apply. A scout came to see Pete play and was impressed enough to offer her a tryout in Newark, NJ. After the tryout, Pete was offered a position on the Springfield (IL) Sallies for the 1949 season.

 

We believe that Pete Shadic is farthest right, kneeling

The Springfield Sallies had been formed in 1948 as an expansion team in the Western Division of the AAGPBL (The original four teams were the Rockford Peaches, the Racine Belles, the Kenosha Comets, and the South Bend Blue Sox).  The 1948 season was not kind to the Sallies, who ended up in last place with a 41-84 record. By the time Pete showed up for the 1949 season, the league had downgraded the Sallies to a “touring player development team,” akin to a minor league team. Also downgraded were the Chicago Colleens of the Eastern Division, who had posted an equally abysmal record.

In comparison, in the 1962 inaugural season of the New York Mets, the team had an even worse season, ending up with a 40-120 record. Were they “sent down?” Of course not, and in fact they went on to win the World Series just seven years later. The Sallies and the Colleens never got the chance to make good. Despite that, Pete was an enthusiastic and talented player, swatting two homers in one game and traveling to 26 states with the Sallies.

 

The AAGPBL website memorialized Pete with these words:

“Anyone who has heard Pete speak about her experience can see the lasting influence this had on her life. She has scrapbooks of the time playing as well as the many reunions she has attended with former teammates. She even has her own baseball card. The Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown has honored these teams with a special section where Pete’s name is displayed along with those of all the women who played.”

When Major League Baseball games started being televised, the popularity of the Girls’ League di­minished, and Pete returned home after the 1949 season.  She married Clifford Campbell, who had just returned from service in the Marines and together they raised seven children: four daughters and three sons, several of whom remain in the Roe Jan area. Clifford and Pete started a successful dairy farm and worked it together for many years. Ironically, some ballfields at Taconic Hills Central School are on what was once their farm land. At the softball field at the southern end of the campus, a plaque with Pete’s picture commemorates her days with the Sallies. Another nearby plaque acknowledges her gift of the scoreboard at the field.

 

During the years her children were growing up, Pete drove a bus for the Taconic Hills Central School. She was active in her church and served as treasurer of the North Copake Cemetery Association.

The AAGPBL continued to play games until 1954, when it was disbanded. In 1986, the surviving members of the AAGPBL formed a Players Association, which set out to gain recognition by the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY for their contributions to baseball. In 1988, the Hall of Fame opened a permanent exhibit called Diamond Dreams, which celebrates women in baseball. Pete Campbell’s name (as Lillian “Pete” Shadic) is there, along with all the other players in the AAGPBL.

At a game played on Mother’s Day 2011, the New York Mets asked Pete to throw out the first pitch. She wore her Sallies jersey. “The Mets treated me like a queen,” Campbell told the [Hudson, NY] Register-Star.

The All-American Girls’ Professional Baseball League gave some 600 women athletes the opportunity to play pro­fessional baseball at a time when professional women’s sports teams weren’t even a gleam in the eye of most Americans. To quote Pete, “It’s an amazing feeling to have fans on their feet cheering when you hit your first home run.  Playing in the AAGPBL was some of the greatest days of my life.  I will never forget.”

Pete at CitiField, Mother’s Day 2011 (Photo Credit: Register-Star)

She never gave up playing softball, not even after being sidelined by triple bypass surgery. Up to the age of 75, she pitched and played second base and center field for the Hudson Women’s Modified Fastpitch League in Hudson, NY until it disbanded in 2005. She coached her children’s Little League and baseball teams.

In later years, Pete gave talks about her baseball experiences at schools and other area organizations, including a nursing home in Connecticut where she was surprised by how many of those attending remembered the women’s baseball league and the days when Babe Ruth visited the Berkshires to hunt and fish at Copake Lake and Mt. Washington.

Today, 50 years after the passage of Title IX, there are professional women’s sports leagues in basketball, tennis, soccer, golf, softball, bowling, hockey, football, and more. Women still have to fight for equal pay and airtime with the men’s leagues but, as Pete said in 2007, “Girls’ sports have come a long way; they have so many more opportunities now.”

CBS Sunday Morning interviewed 92-year-old Joyce Westerman about her years playing in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League.  This clip shows what it must have been like for Pete Shadic to leave small-town Columbia County and play professional baseball.

There seems to be something in the air about women in baseball these days. Amazon Prime has even rebooted the 1992 movie as a new streaming series (it’s not as good as the original movie, in our humble opinion). Maybe it’s the recognition of the impact that Title IX has had, 50 years on.  Maybe it’s belated recognition for the trailblazers who broke barriers in professional baseball more than 75 years ago.

Either way, Lillian “Pete” Shadic Campbell, the pride of Taconic Hills and a Cooperstown Hall of Famer, is part of that history. Pete was “called up to the majors” in 2017, and we’re sure she made it safely to home plate.  She was truly in a league of her own.

(Photo: Charlotte Owens, Findagrave.com)

 

Sources:

AAGPBL.com

Hudson (NY) Register-Star obituaries

CBS Sunday Morning

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© 2022 Chris Atkins and Lauren Letellier