AUSL Is Returning Professional Women’s Softball to Network TV—75 Years After the First Broadcast
With today’s AUSL broadcast being promoted as the first women’s professional softball game on network television, I wanted to share a piece of forgotten history.
Professional women’s fastpitch softball actually reached network television 75 years ago with ABC’s Girls Baseball. The series followed the Tony Piet Queens of Chicago’s National Girls Baseball League, as ABC brought their games to a nationwide audience for nine Saturday nights from May through July 1951. The program was scheduled to premiere on Saturday, May 26, 1951, with the Queens facing the Chicago Bluebirds at Shewbridge Field. Rain postponed that opening game, so the first broadcast took place the following Saturday, June 2, 1951, when the Thillens Checashers played the Queens at Shewbridge Field (the Queens won the game 2–0).
The Queens were not just any team—they were one of the powerhouse franchises of the NGBL and regarded at the time as the best softball team in America. They entered the 1951 season as defending champions, won the league championship again that year, and went on to capture four titles during the NGBL’s 11 seasons of existence.
The team featured some of the greatest players in women’s fastpitch softball history, including Freda Savona, widely considered to be the best player of her generation, and her sister Olympia, a very good player in her own right. Their pitching staff included softball legends Betty Evans Grayson, Virginia “Ginny” Busick, and Ann Kmezich, all members of various softball halls of fame. The roster also featured Alice Kolski, the 1944 NGSL MVP, and Pat Carson, who was the league’s top slugger before Freda Savona arrived.
ABC promoted the circuit under the name National Women’s Professional Baseball League, and the Queens were billed as the Queens of America. Girls Baseball was planned as a nine-week Saturday night series beginning with the May 26 premiere date. The program replaced roller derby on ABC’s schedule, and the broadcasts were later distributed to the West Coast through kinescope recordings.
Featuring announcer Pat Flanagan, Girls Baseball was a groundbreaking moment in sports television. It became the first prime-time network television series dedicated to a diamond sport in the United States.
Despite the baseball branding used in ABC’s promotions and broadcasts, the National Girls Baseball League was actually a professional women’s fastpitch softball league that operated in the Chicago area from 1944–1954. The league was originally called the National Girls Softball League before rebranding in 1946.
Unfortunately, the broadcast schedule was created before African American star Betty Chapman signed with the Music Maids in July of 1951, meaning viewers never got to see her compete on national television.
The program continued for one more season, but ABC shifted its coverage to the Arthur Murray Girls of the New York-based American Girls Baseball Conference. The first broadcast featured the Murray Girls taking on the Freeport Forest Jewels, who featured pioneering African American star Yvonne “Coky” Coker. Coker was the second Black woman to play in the league, but the first Black woman to play hardball after the league transitioned from softball to baseball in 1949.
Today’s AUSL broadcast is still a historic moment for professional women’s softball, but it is also an opportunity to remember the women who helped pave the way 75 years ago.
Here are the complete results of ABC’s Girls Baseball broadcasts featuring the Tony Piet Queens in 1951:
May 26: Rainout
June 2: Queens 2, Checashers 0
June 9: Queens 16, Rockolas 0
June 16: Queens 16, Bluebirds 0 (Game 1 of a doubleheader was televised.)
June 23: Queens 2, Checashers 0
June 30: Queens 2, Rockolas 1 (Game 1 of a doubleheader was televised.)
July 7: Queens 6, Bluebirds 4
July 14: Checashers 2, Queens 1
July 21: Queens 7, Rockolas 6
The Queens finished the televised schedule with a 7–1 record, outscoring their opponents 52–15. Their only loss came on July 14, when the Checashers edged them 2–1.
All games were shot from Shewbridge Field.