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Making The List: Alice “Lefty” Hohlmayer
jcollingsworth via our good friends at Buckeye Battle Cry
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
When I started this listing of great Buckeyes, the obvious such as Jesse Owens, Jack Nicklaus, Woody Hayes, Archie Griffin, Jerry Lucas, Herb Williams, and Katie Smith were all guaranteed to be mentioned. Their accomplishments were completely golden and were well beyond the purpose of this weekly briefing of some of the greatest athletes to ever wear Scarlet and Gray. On occasion, in the joy of researching, pops up a name of a ”relatively” unknown that is completely equal of recognition of any of the names that I have mentioned above. Some of those names were Yoshi Oyakawa, Nate Brooks, and Linda Kalafatis. This week’s mention is one of those prized diamonds found in the rough.
Alice “Lefty” Hohlmayer competed for Ohio State before there were varsity sports for women. She, undoubtedly, is considered one of the finest and most versatile athletes ever to play for the Ohio State University. Hohlmayer was a member of the “Varsity” field hockey, volleyball, basketball, softball, soccer, fencing, badminton, archery and mixed tennis teams during her time on campus. She once said: “I bore easily. I want to be the best at everything … I am a very good typer too.”
In 1946, she pitched and played first base in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. The “A League of Their Own” movie chronicled her story as played by Rosie O’Donnell. Hohlmayer set a league record with 21 put outs at first base and was later inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown in 1988. The Buckeyes “wised” up and enshrined her into the Ohio State Athletics Hall of Fame in 2001 – way too late in my opinion – but better late than never.
She actually got a hit off legendary Satchel Paige who said afterwards, “Her swing targets the ball. She is really good.” She also traveled to Japan with Joe DiMaggio on a mission to promote the sport of baseball and to unite the two nations together on a common ground with their love for the sport. Penny Marshall dined with her in NYC – saying, “Wow! I am impressed. She’s the real deal!” The Ohio State University Athletic Department has labeled her as one of the greatest and most versatile athletes to ever play for the Buckeyes.
At $800 a season, she was the highest paid rookie to ever come through the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. The League had emerged in the spring of 1943 after World War II had forced most minor league teams into obscurity and taken many quality players away from the major league clubs. It was already in full swing for three seasons before Hohlmayer even heard of it. Once she did – nothing would be the same for the League. She was a star.
In field hockey it is said that she had such a powerful swing that the ball would be resting inside the goal for several seconds as the opposing team looked around to see where it had gone. And in archery some called her ‘Robin Hood’.
Alice Hohlmayer has also been inducted into the San Diego Women’s Hall Of Fame in 2005.
With all of these accomplishments, compliments, and acknowledgments, it is admittedly an honor to add her name to our list. I saw the film ‘A League of Their Own’ as I am certain many of you did as well. I even knew of Alice, and that she had been a student athlete at The Ohio State University. But, and I will speak for myself, when you jump into such an adventure to detail briefly some of the greatest athletes from such a powerhouse sports school as OSU the easy route is often to bring up the names we all know, that is at the tip of our thoughts whenever we discuss whatever sport it is we are discussing. But when the desire to find that “relatively-unknown” gem sprouts into your mind I am quite pleased to say I ran with it. In my re-introduction to Alice Hohlmayer I have indeed recognized that The Ohio State University is precisely what I mentioned above – a powerhouse sports school – and they always have been. Think about it – how cool would it be to get a hit off Satchel Paige and then have him say that you are “…really good!” To watch the opposition look around like a comedy movie for the ball that you hit in field hockey into the goal that now rests for a point awaiting for everyone else’s attention to catch up? Or to be called Robin Hood? Alice Hohlmayer not only deserves to Make the List, she wrote it.
The post Making The List: Alice “Lefty” Hohlmayer appeared first on The Buckeye Battle Cry: Ohio State News and Commentary.
Continue reading...
jcollingsworth via our good friends at Buckeye Battle Cry
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
When I started this listing of great Buckeyes, the obvious such as Jesse Owens, Jack Nicklaus, Woody Hayes, Archie Griffin, Jerry Lucas, Herb Williams, and Katie Smith were all guaranteed to be mentioned. Their accomplishments were completely golden and were well beyond the purpose of this weekly briefing of some of the greatest athletes to ever wear Scarlet and Gray. On occasion, in the joy of researching, pops up a name of a ”relatively” unknown that is completely equal of recognition of any of the names that I have mentioned above. Some of those names were Yoshi Oyakawa, Nate Brooks, and Linda Kalafatis. This week’s mention is one of those prized diamonds found in the rough.
Alice “Lefty” Hohlmayer competed for Ohio State before there were varsity sports for women. She, undoubtedly, is considered one of the finest and most versatile athletes ever to play for the Ohio State University. Hohlmayer was a member of the “Varsity” field hockey, volleyball, basketball, softball, soccer, fencing, badminton, archery and mixed tennis teams during her time on campus. She once said: “I bore easily. I want to be the best at everything … I am a very good typer too.”
In 1946, she pitched and played first base in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. The “A League of Their Own” movie chronicled her story as played by Rosie O’Donnell. Hohlmayer set a league record with 21 put outs at first base and was later inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown in 1988. The Buckeyes “wised” up and enshrined her into the Ohio State Athletics Hall of Fame in 2001 – way too late in my opinion – but better late than never.
She actually got a hit off legendary Satchel Paige who said afterwards, “Her swing targets the ball. She is really good.” She also traveled to Japan with Joe DiMaggio on a mission to promote the sport of baseball and to unite the two nations together on a common ground with their love for the sport. Penny Marshall dined with her in NYC – saying, “Wow! I am impressed. She’s the real deal!” The Ohio State University Athletic Department has labeled her as one of the greatest and most versatile athletes to ever play for the Buckeyes.
At $800 a season, she was the highest paid rookie to ever come through the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. The League had emerged in the spring of 1943 after World War II had forced most minor league teams into obscurity and taken many quality players away from the major league clubs. It was already in full swing for three seasons before Hohlmayer even heard of it. Once she did – nothing would be the same for the League. She was a star.
In field hockey it is said that she had such a powerful swing that the ball would be resting inside the goal for several seconds as the opposing team looked around to see where it had gone. And in archery some called her ‘Robin Hood’.
Alice Hohlmayer has also been inducted into the San Diego Women’s Hall Of Fame in 2005.
With all of these accomplishments, compliments, and acknowledgments, it is admittedly an honor to add her name to our list. I saw the film ‘A League of Their Own’ as I am certain many of you did as well. I even knew of Alice, and that she had been a student athlete at The Ohio State University. But, and I will speak for myself, when you jump into such an adventure to detail briefly some of the greatest athletes from such a powerhouse sports school as OSU the easy route is often to bring up the names we all know, that is at the tip of our thoughts whenever we discuss whatever sport it is we are discussing. But when the desire to find that “relatively-unknown” gem sprouts into your mind I am quite pleased to say I ran with it. In my re-introduction to Alice Hohlmayer I have indeed recognized that The Ohio State University is precisely what I mentioned above – a powerhouse sports school – and they always have been. Think about it – how cool would it be to get a hit off Satchel Paige and then have him say that you are “…really good!” To watch the opposition look around like a comedy movie for the ball that you hit in field hockey into the goal that now rests for a point awaiting for everyone else’s attention to catch up? Or to be called Robin Hood? Alice Hohlmayer not only deserves to Make the List, she wrote it.
The post Making The List: Alice “Lefty” Hohlmayer appeared first on The Buckeye Battle Cry: Ohio State News and Commentary.
Continue reading...