IN A LEAGUE OF HER OWN: SOUTH PEMISCOT COACH WAS ONE OF THE ELITE PROFESSIONAL ATHLETES OF HER DAY

STEELE, Mo. -- One spring day in 1950, Pattye Woody, her father and oldest brother, Joe, squeezed into the family pickup truck and drove the 95 bumpy miles from the Bootheel to Cape Girardeau. Her father and brother wanted her to try out for the Fort Wayne Daisies, one of eight teams in the All American Girls Professional Baseball League. This was the same league depicted in the 1992 movie "A League of Their Own."

The 17-year-old just thought of the trip as a "play day."

But Woody, whose maiden name was Burton, was the sole player the Daisies picked from the tryout. They immediately put her on the team bus and headed for Indiana. "I was all welled up inside," she recalled, "but the reality didn't hit me until it got dark."

She had no clothes with her save what she wore that day and her practice gear. The youngest of 10 children, Woody had never been away from home. "I didn't even know where Indiana was," she says.

Today, not many people in Steele or many of the students Woody greets with grandmotherly affection know that Pattye Burton Woody was among the elite professional athletes of her generation. Not only did she play professional baseball, she played basketball for two years in the 1950s with the All American Red Heads, then the female equivalent of the Harlem Globetrotters.

At 69, Woody coaches four different volleyball teams at the South Pemiscot schools, where her high school team has won the district championship 14 of 19 years. She arises at 5 a.m. to get ready for her 7 a.m. bus route. During the day she teaches health and girls physical education before coaching her teams after school. During baseball season she drives the team bus.

"My job is my life," she says.

Always an athlete

Sports have been an essential part of her life since she was playing pickup games with her brothers. In high school she lettered all four years in four sports -- softball, tennis, track and basketball -- the only athlete in the history of Steele High School -- now called South Pemiscot -- to do so. In basketball she averaged 25 points per game in and had a high game of 48 points.

Bernie High School student Shauna Davis found out about Woody's professional athletic past while researching her recent scholarship-winning History Day project, "The First Ladies of Baseball: A Forgotten Frontier."

The Midwest-based AAGPBL started in 1943 as a substitute for Major League baseball during World War II and thrived before fading away in 1954. Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana each had two teams in the league, all from medium-sized towns.

The young women played with a ball that weighed 5 1/8 ounces and was 10 3/8 inches in circumference. The baseball used by the men's leagues weighed 5 1/4 ounces and was 9 to 9 1/4 inches in circumference. The AAGPBL baselines were 72 feet long instead of 90 feet and the pitching distance was 50 feet instead of 60 feet 6 inches.

Woody was a utility infielder, good field and no hit. "I used to tell everybody I could catch a bullet," she says. "Batting was one of my weaknesses. But I liked to try."

The Daisies paid Woody $325 a month. "That was all the money in the world .... to a 17-year-old girl," she says.

They dressed very much like the women in "A League of Their Own" did, but Woody says there was none of the hanky-panky portrayed in the movie. The young women all stayed with families and were chaperoned everywhere they went.

Managed by Hall of Famer Max Carey, the Fort Wayne Daisies were 62-43 during the year Woody played, finishing a close second to the Rockford Peaches. The Daisies' star player was shortstop Dottie Schroeder, whose picture was on the cover of Parade magazine in 1948.

A new Red Head

Woody lasted one season with the Daisies, returning to Steele High School afterward to get her diploma. After playing some junior college basketball in Mississippi, she was recruited by the All American Red Heads. The Red Heads toured the U.S. playing male teams composed of members of civic organizations trying to raise funds for their projects. It was a performance more than a game, one the opposing teams participated in. Each player had special trick shots. Woody could bounce the ball off her elbows and into the basket. She also sat on the shoulders of another player for a dunk shot.

"We had to be good athletes," Woody said.

Some of the Red Heads actually were red-headed. The others had to keep plenty of dye around.

These experiences made her a better teacher, Woody says. "You learn about getting along with different people and different cultures. Even cities are different."

After leaving the basketball team, Woody went to nursing school. She and her late husband, Edward, raised three sons before she decided that teaching and coaching were her ultimate calling. She began attending Arkansas State University at the age of 38, eventually getting a master's degree. She is the only member of her family to get a college education.

Everybody's teacher

In 1982, she coached South Pemiscot's first boys track team. Her 400-meter relay team won the state championship that year. She also has coached basketball and more recently has concentrated on volleyball. She is in her 21st year at South Pemiscot High School.

Principal Brandon Jones says Woody is an institution at the school. "She has taught everybody in town, including me," he said.

"She is invaluable to us all."

People sometimes ask Woody why she doesn't retire. "I feel like I've just learned what I'm supposed to do," she says.

Sports have been important to her self-esteem, Woody says.

"I got an overwhelming sense of acceptance coming from a poor, large family. I received a lot of recognition from my sporting endeavors."

She sometimes wonders how she might do if she were young now, when women athletes are celebrated rather than unusual.

As a basketball player she was an aggressive scoring guard along the lines of Southwest Missouri State University's Jackie Stiles.

"I always felt like I was out of synch," she says. She would love to have her youth back. "I would like to accept the challenge just to see."

ON THE NET

To find out more about the All American Girls Professional Baseball League online, go to:

*www.aagpbl.org

*members.aol.com/ledgendlady/

*www.baseballhalloffame.org

READ MORE

*"Up to the Plate: The All American Girls Professional Baseball League," Margot Fortunato Galt

*The Women of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League: A Biographical Dictionsary," W.C. Madden

Source: Shauna Davis