By By STEVE MORRISON / Niles Daily Star
NILES – "When opportunity knocks, answer the door!" That's just what happened one spring day, in 1946, when Lillian Luckey was fortunate to be recruited by the South Bend Blue Sox to pitch in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League.
"I was just sitting at home," Luckey recollected. "I had been working at Tyler's (Refrigeration Company), and they went on strike. A knock came on the door; we didn't have a phone. It was Dr. Cooper (a South Bend physician and a member of the South Bend Blue Sox Board of Owners) and Chet Grant (the manager of the team and a former Notre Dame quarterback). They asked if I was interested in playing. I had checked out playing for them. I had developed a reputation as a pitcher in Niles, and somebody had said something to them. Chet knew I was at home. I went out and played catch with him, and he signed me to a contract. They paid me $40 a week, but that was more than I was making at Tyler's. The star pitcher wanted $100," she chuckled.
Luckey had served in the U.S. Marines during the war from 1943 to 1945.
"I played my best baseball in the Marines," she stated.
In 1943, with our country deeply involved in World War II, many minor leagues had been disbanded and major league rosters had been trimmed due to many young men going off to serve in the armed forces. Phillip Wrigley, owner of the Chicago Cubs; Branch Rickey, General Manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers; and Ken Sells, Assistant General Manager of the Cubs; were encouraged by U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to create something to boost American morale. They devised the All American Girls Softball League.
Tryouts were held at Wrigley Field in Chicago. During the course of its nine year existence, from 1943 to 1954, rules and standards were modified. What began as a 12 inch softball league, with mounds 40 feet from home plate, eventually evolved to a mound 60 feet from home, a regulation baseball pitched overhand, and basic baseball rules. Luckey remembers that her first and only season included a transition to overhand pitching instead of the submarine softball style.
Teams who participated in the league included, at various times: the Rockford Peaches, the Milwaukee/Grand Rapids Chicks, the Racine Belles, the Kalamazoo Lassies, Peoria, and, of course, the South Bend Blue Sox. The Blue Sox won league championships in 1951 and the ensuing year.
A South Bend native, Luckey recalled that in the years of growing up she played a lot of baseball, because it was during The Depression and times were difficult. There wasn't much to do back then. She played with the Auto Specialties Auscos of St. Joseph, and won a state championship in softball later.
"The only reason I became a pitcher, I think, is because I pumped water, and that helped me develop strength," she added. She also played basketball and soccer in her youth.
As Luckey reminisced through her year on the diamond she laughed and discussed her take on the 1992 movie "A League of Their Own."
"We were amused by it (the movie), because there's an old saying…'there's no crying in baseball' …That isn't true. The girls really don't buy that. Some of the hijinks never happened. We had a lady (chaperone), Mrs. Moore. She was with us in the clubhouse, in the dugout, the hotels, we were never alone. We were well supported by business people of South Bend."
League rules were strict. The ladies had to wear short skirts and lipstick at games, and they were never allowed to wear slacks or trousers.
After that one year as a ballplayer, Luckey realized that it wasn't going to be "forever", and she moved on. "I just knew that my future wasn't there. I had played since I was 14, and I was 26."
After leaving pro baseball Luckey spent five and one half years with the Medical Mission Sisters in Philadelphia. She described her tenure as a wonderful experience. She transported many people to New York City and various places.
Then Lillian took a year off, came home to Niles, and went to Niles High School to begin a 25-year career as a school secretary. She served there from 1959 to 1984. Many will remember her from Niles High School, but not from her year on the diamond.
Luckey, recently turned 89, still plays golf twice a week, on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings.