Another Little League season has ended. Boys and girls have put away their baseball and softball gloves. No one thinks twice about who is playing.
Fifty years ago — in America’s bicentennial year — things were quite different.
The other day, longtime Westporter and avid sports volunteer Jeff Mitchell unearthed a fascinating story from the Westport News. It involved Little League baseball — then celebrating its 25th year in town — and its relatively new softball program.
Written by the News‘ (very) young sports editor, Dan Woog, it described a forgotten chapter in local sports history.
Westport won the Senior League softball state championship, qualifying for the New England tournament in Vermont.
But the threat of legal action — and violence — took center stage.
Westport included boys on the roster. It was legal. The Westporters preferred softball to baseball.
But no team had done it before.
Clockwise from top left: Steve Kane, Dale Call, Richard Frey.
The 2 teams Westport beat — Seymour and Durham — protested that Westport had used illegal players.
The national Little League asked Westport to not compete. They decided that Seymour and Durham would play each other, to determine Connecticut’s representative.
Westport officials pointed out that the national office, in denying the protests of the defeated teams that Westport had used illegal (male) players, specifically stated that Westport won the state title.
Still, Westport’s board of directors feared that the safety of their players could not be guaranteed in Vermont. They withdrew from further competition.
Woog wrote in the Westport News:
Franny DeLuca, manager of the beleaguered co-ed softball team (dubbed a “unisex” squad by the New York Times), received a telegram from C.J. Hale, the national president of Little League Baseball, Inc.
Hale acknowledged that “the Westport Senior League softball team is recognized as 1976 state champions.” But “because of the importance of having a Connecticut entry in the New England tournament, the runner-up will be the Connecticut entry.” This acknowledgement that Westport was, and would remain, the official Constitution State champ mollified the Westporters.
Westport Little League chairman Don Levy sent a telegram to his counterpart in Seymour, extending “our sincerest best wishes for success in future tournament play” in Vermont, following Seymour’s win over Durham.
But controversy continued. The paper reported:
The entire matter is not yet settled. Several letters have come to the Westport News, and many phone calls have been made. All of them contained an outpouring of emotion rare in a case as seemingly minor as this.
One woman, the parent of a Senior all-star, wrote “I am the mother of a son, which I am beginning to believe is a dirty word.” She had heard adults in Durham say, “what do you expect from Westport parents? They’re all alcoholics, so how can they possibly know the sex of their children?”
She continued, “I was one of the parents who voted against going to Vermont. I did not feel we were quitters. I am proud of my son and of all the kids on the team who took that garbage (verbal abuse), but I could not go and neither could my husband. I was afraid.
For the record, the state champion Westport squad included Patty DeLuca, Karen Sidell, Jane Waltrip, Patty Constantikes, David Karlin, Mark Landis, Todd Fauske, Richard Frey, Doug Bernstein, Steve Kane, Dale Call and Jason France.
Manager Franny DeLuca was assisted by coaches Peter Coddington and Garry Vannart.
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From the article….She had heard adults in Durham say, “what do you expect from Westport parents? They’re all alcoholics, so how can they possibly know the sex of their children?”
But I’ve been assured by the long time townies that everything was so much different and better back then.
That Durham lady must have been mistaken.
I worked evenings at Mario’s ‘68-‘69. Right across the street from where the train station unloaded the commuters. Maybe not all Westport parents were alcoholics but there were enough to coach a very long roster of Little Leaguers.
Ironic isn’t it that the current ‘hot’ story at this year’s LL World Series is Kinley Rasmus, daughter of MLBer Cory Rasmus. Not only does she throw smoke; but bats like a real slugger; and is carrying her team. BTW; the boys on the Alabama team are in awe of her. Lots of respect.
I love Westport history and small world talk. Dan, you must make sure Doug sees this!
A small detail that shouldn’t go unnoticed… photo credit to Kaliff. That would likely be Todd Kaliff… at that time an English teacher at Bedford Middle School (now Saugatuck Elementary on Riverside Ave) and later an administrator at Staples… those players may have been students in his classroom.
I believe the photographer was Carol Kaliff.
My maternal grandfather was a State Senator from Vermont and a life long resident as well as being the largest slumlord in the State. He wrote in his diary in 1958, after Westport was named one of the best”cities” in the USA, the town is one of the “snootiest” places the country. Bad blood between the two locations for decades. First I have heard of a softball league but I must say Little League was a large part of making the Wonder Years wonderful.