A League of Her Own

Mary Pratt stands in front of a class of 25 Sargent College students. None of them have any idea who this 5-foot-1, 90-year-old woman is, or why she’s there. She tells them that she graduated from Sargent in 1940, when the school was located on the other side of the Charles River.’

She looks around and sees that the professor has not yet arrived, so she decides to tell more of her story. She taught physical and special education for more than 40 years, she tells them. A couple of students look mildly interested; most still look confused. When the professor arrives, she looks just as puzzled as the students, but decides not to interrupt. Then, Pratt captures everyone’s attention with one sentence.

‘I played in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League and Penny Marshall made a movie about us in 1992 called A League of Their Own,’ she tells the class.

Playing in the AAGPBL is just one facet of what makes Pratt a pioneer in the evolution of women’s athletics, though. Her battle for equality and acceptance began when she competed against the boys on the playground in all kinds of sports in grade school. Then she competed on every intramural team offered at Boston University. She officiated and coached in a number of leagues and sports throughout her teaching career.’

Pratt also co-founded the New Agenda-Northeast Project, which annually recognizes the accomplishments of female athletes in Massachusetts. She has been recognized by the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., and is also a member of the BU Athletic Hall of Fame.’

She started an ‘Out and About’ program to bring former AAGPBL players together and continues to work with a number of organizations to promote opportunities for female athletes and has been honored numerous times as a result.

‘She never stops,’ Kathy Bertrand, who taught with Pratt for 17 years in Quincy, said. ‘At one point she was the only physical education teacher in Quincy. She taught 15-minute classes at all 20 schools in Quincy, going school to school by the bus system.’

Linda Lundin, who became friends with Pratt through basketball officiating, and Virginia White, who played on one of Pratt’s softball teams, both describe Pratt as ‘energetic.’

It’s easy to see why. Since there were no women’s varsity teams when Pratt arrived at BU in 1936, she tried out for all 11 intramural teams the school offered ‘-‘- and made them all.’

But that wasn’t enough for Pratt. She also competed for the Boston Field Hockey and Lacrosse Associations, club teams that catered to women who wanted to compete at a higher level.

‘I think it was just my love of sports and competition that enabled me to play everything,’ Pratt said.

Pratt carried that love right into the AAGPBL’s inaugural season in 1943. After two years of teaching physical education at Quincy High School, the left-handed pitcher was invited to Illinois to join the new league and play for the Rockford Peaches, the team A League of Their Own was based on.’

Ralph Wheeler, a Boston Herald reporter who helped recruit for the league, first noticed Pratt in the Boston Garden League, which was run by Walter Brown, in the summers of 1939 and 1940. Pratt played five seasons in the AAGPBL, with her best season coming in 1944 when she went 21-15 for the Kenosha (Wis.) Comets.

Female athletes across the country have felt the impact of the AAGPBL for more than 50 years. It was the first women’s professional sports league in the United States and even though the league ceased operation in 1954, its legacy will live forever thanks to the efforts of its alumni, including Pratt, as well as because of A League of Their Own.

‘More than anything else, it’s given me the chance to go so many places and talk about the league and women’s athletics,’ Pratt said.

For many years, though, there wasn’t much said about the league. That changed at the AAGPBL’s first players’ reunion in Chicago in 1982. From that point on, Pratt and many other players have given innumerable speeches and presentations about the league and the opportunities it created for female athletes.

Then, in 1988, the National Baseball Hall of Fame honored the entire league with the ‘Women in Baseball’ exhibit. It was at that time that the players were told about a potential film about the league.

‘We questioned it,’ Pratt said. ‘We wondered how it could ever be that someone was going to make a movie about us.’

All the players were invited to read the script and while there were a few disagreements, most notably over the inclusion of Madonna, Pratt recognizes that even though A League of Their Own wasn’t entirely truthful, the attention it brought to the AAGPBL was much more significant than any factual fallacies.

‘Penny Marshall wasn’t doing a documentary; she was telling a story,’ Pratt said. ‘She took a few liberties, but she didn’t ruin it or anything like that. Interest in the league won’t go away, and that’s mostly because of that movie.’

While most of the characters in the movie were composites of multiple players, Pratt likes to joke that the scene when Madonna slides into third was based on her.

As a member of the board of the players’ association, Pratt started an ‘Out and About’ program to plan speeches and presentations by the league’s alumni. Pratt herself has given more than 600 presentations.

‘I’ve been to many of her presentations and she gets the crowd to become enthusiastic with her,’ White, who works with Pratt through the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association and the New Agenda-Northeast Project, said. ‘Her energy just rubs off on people.’

Pratt’s contribution to women’s athletics goes beyond the AAGPBL, though. While she was a teacher, she coached basketball, soccer and softball at Quincy High School and softball and tennis at Salem State College. Ten of her softball teams won championships at various levels.

She also officiated basketball, field hockey, lacrosse and softball for 50 years, beginning right after she graduated from BU.

In addition to devoting herself to the New Agenda-Northeast Project, Pratt works with the MIAA to improve the status of female athletes and officials in Massachusetts. She also teaches a circuit training class every week at Planet Fitness in Weymouth, Mass.

It’s clear that Pratt is not concerned with individual recognition ‘-‘- she just wants female athletes as a whole to be recognized. But her work, almost all of which is volunteer, has earned her a number of awards.

Besides being inducted into the BU Hall of Fame and honored in Cooperstown as a member of the AAGPBL, Pratt has been inducted into the New England Sports Museum and Boston Garden Hall of Fame. In 2006, she became the eighth person to be honored with the Heights Award for her dedication to the advancement of women’s athletics.

‘Mary is a pioneer,’ Bertrand, who is also an associate member of the AAGPBL, said. ‘She’s the one who’s broken all the barriers. Everyone always says, ‘Someone has to do it.’ Well, she’s the one who’s done it her whole life. She’s been my mentor and she’s inspired many across the nation to fight for women athletes.’