THEIR TURN AT BAT

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.

I’m not sure why the AUSL is waiting so long to announce this, especially since the game is just 9 days away, but we hope to see you at the Parkway Bank Sports Complex (27 Jennie Finch Way, Rosemont, IL) on July 18 at 1:00 PM CT for the Chicago Bandits vs. Utah Talons game, where we’ll celebrate Betty Chapman Day.

This year marks the 75th anniversary of Betty Chapman breaking the color barrier in the National Girls Baseball League, becoming the first African American woman to play in a professional softball league.

I recently found Betty’s family, and they’ll be in attendance. We’ll be there as well, sporting the awesome baseball tee above!

We wanted to share this design.

In the first image, the left-side emblem is the original National Girls Baseball League (NGBL) mark, adopted after the circuit changed its name in 1946 from the National Girls Softball League (NGSL) to the National Girls Baseball League.

A few things about the league:

The NGSL/NGBL was a women's fastpitch softball league that operated in the Chicagoland area from 1944 to 1954. It featured some of the top players of the era and competed with the Midwest-based All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL).

Although the mark includes the word "Pro," the league was never officially called the National Girls Pro Baseball League. The term was added to the logo to distinguish it as a professional organization. The shift to “Baseball” was also meant to attract baseball fans by highlighting that the league followed nearly all standard baseball rules, aside from the larger ball, shorter base paths, and underhand pitching.

The words "Nite Ball" appear in the design because, prior to 1951, games were played almost exclusively at night, with weekend day games added in later seasons.

On the right is our modern recreation of the original mark, along with variations showing the central figure in different team uniforms. We selected only primary uniforms, and not every club is represented.

To date, we’ve only been able to verify the uniform colors of seven of the many teams that played in the NGBL.

Hey everyone, we're back!

We tried migrating everything over to our Instagram page, but our account was permanently disabled by Meta. Until we hear back and learn why this happened, we've decided to start posting here again.

For our first post back: Happy World Softball Day! 🥎

Today we celebrate the sport of softball and the women who helped make it a professional attraction long before most people realized it was possible.

From 1944 to 1954, the National Girls Softball League, later renamed the National Girls Baseball League, brought professional women’s fastpitch softball to the Chicagoland area. Founded in response to the creation of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, the NGBL competed directly for many of the nation’s top female athletes while continuing to play fastpitch softball under traditional rules.

Drawing an average of 500,000 spectators annually during its peak years, the league featured stars, rivalries, and championship races that captivated fans across Chicago and its suburbs. While the AAGPBL gradually transitioned toward baseball, the NGBL remained committed to elite women’s fastpitch softball until its final season in 1954.

On World Softball Day, we honor the players, managers, owners, and fans who helped make the National Girls Softball League/National Girls Baseball League one of the most successful women’s professional softball leagues in history.

Now available: National Girls Baseball League baseball tees.

Classic design. Everyday comfort. True team spirit.

Order yours today and show your support for the league.

The stories of the women who played in the National Girls Baseball League deserve to live on. Our website keeps their history alive, but rising costs make it difficult to sustain without help.

After the 1994 Major League Baseball strike, I became a huge fan of what’s often called outsider baseball. That term refers to the parts of the game that lived outside the mainstream—segregated leagues, barnstorming teams, industrial leagues, and countless regional clubs and players who never made it into the dominant Major League Baseball narrative. It’s a reminder that baseball’s story has never been told in full.

When it came to the women’s side of the game, I had only ever heard of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL). The discovery of a rival league, the National Girls Baseball League (NGBL), showed me that women’s baseball and softball had their own outsider history waiting to be uncovered.

Pretty quickly after I began researching, I realized that multiple women’s softball and baseball leagues had emerged during the World War II era. One of these was the American Girls Softball League (AGSL) / American Girls Baseball Conference (AGBC) / Eastern States Girls Baseball League (ESGBL), which operated in the New York metropolitan area. What began as a regional amateur league grew into a major force in the Northeast—so much so that in 1952 it landed a national television deal with ABC. Teams like the Arthur Murray Girls, the Freeport Forest Jewelers, and the Bronx Alpines were suddenly broadcast nationwide.

Although my main focus has always been the National Girls Baseball League, I also love highlighting these other organizations. I believe the AAGPBL shouldn’t be the only story dominating the conversation in women’s baseball history—and neither should the NGBL in women’s softball history. That’s why you’ll see me posting more content about the American Girls Softball League and other forgotten leagues across the United States that deserve recognition.

We’ve updated the NGBL Legacy Map! Take a look and tell us if there are any locations we should add:

New updates to the National Girls Baseball League Ballpark Map!

We just added spring exhibition sites in Arizona—and we’re always adding more as new info turns up.

🔗 Check out the map here