Throughout her 50 years being involved in softball, Joanie McElligott has seen a lot evolve with the game. Yet she’s as devoted as ever.
“It’s been the best times,” McElligott told Forest Park Review in an interview. “I’ve made lifelong friends and met a lot of people. It’s been great competition and I’ve had a lot of fun playing.”
McElligott, now a Brookfield resident, has had a decorated career as both a player and a manager. Consequently, she was inducted into the Chicago 16-Inch Softball Hall of Fame in 2022, an honor she still finds humbling today.
“It was a great feeling,” McElligott said. “That’s not what I played for, in fact, back then it wasn’t around. It was a tremendous honor.
“It was an even bigger honor when my team, Chaos, got put in last year,” she added. “I was happy to go in with all my friends. It was a great experience.”
McElligott first started playing when she was 14 years old on the Northwest Side of Chicago. That’s when she says her love affair with softball began.
“I grew up across the street from Athletic Field (a Chicago Park District facility),” McElligott said. “I would go watch the games and eventually I started playing in a (women’s) league.”
McElligott went on to DePaul University, where she played volleyball and softball. But the Blue Demons played with a 12-inch ball and gloves, which meant McElligott had to make an adjustment.
“The game was different,” she said. “The coach noticed the hitch in my swing.”
After college, McElligott continued to play across several leagues in the city and suburbs. She also became a manager, and her teams enjoyed plenty of success due to their focus on playing together and having fun. For years, McElligott has participated in the Y-Me Tournament in Chicago’s Mount Greenwood neighborhood. Not only is it the largest all-women tournament in the area, it also serves as a fundraiser for organizations dedicated to fighting breast cancer.
For a while, women’s leagues enjoyed great popularity. But McElligott feels the quality has been diminished in recent years, and she has a couple of good reasons for it.
“What happened is that there’s a lot of co-ed softball now,” she said. “Women don’t have an opportunity to play as much, and if they do it’s co-ed.
“Girls play with 12-inch balls in school and on club teams,” she added. “We don’t have as many parks offering 16-inch leagues for women as we used to. The parks are where we learned how to play.”
To combat this challenge, McElligott hopes that clinics offered through the Hall of Fame will help turn things around and get women’s interests peaked.
“It’s pretty much word of mouth. We need to introduce the girls to (16-inch softball),” McElligott said. “Everyone that plays 12-inch in high school and college isn’t going to be a professional. My thing is, they need to understand that’s going to go away eventually, and 16-inch softball will always be available to them.”
But besides the focus on building interest for the women’s game, McElligott feels overall that softball itself is thriving in the Chicago area.
“Particularly the men’s game,” she said. “There are tournaments all over the place and there are 50 leagues.”
McElligott, who also sits on the Hall of Fame committee, has attended many No Gloves Nationals tournaments. However, she won’t be at this year’s tournament – but it’s for a good reason.
“I’ll be playing in a Senior Division 11-inch tournament in Des Moines, Iowa,” she said. “I’m playing with No Pressure, which is new to me. I took a little break from softball and I’m coming back into it now. I just turned 64 so I’ve got to watch it.”
