In 1938, the Owls Club, a gaggle of proficient Black girls in Seattle, Washington, received the first-ever Black girls’s skilled softball championship.
The subsequent yr, behind left-handed pitcher Lillian Brown’s dominant efficiency — the place she struck out 12 Manette batters — the workforce, then renamed the Brown Bombers, received the championship once more.
But by 1940, the workforce appeared to have disbanded.
Champions. Trailblazers. Forgotten.
What occurred to the girls who made nationwide headlines after which disappeared with time? How is it that it’s taken almost 90 years for his or her story to resurface?
That query led NCS Sports to Stephanie Johnson-Toliver, president of the Black Heritage Society of Washington State.
Stephanie’s ardour for The Owls Club was electrical. She wished the world to learn about these exceptional girls who as soon as dominated the native sports activities scene, drawing crowds and admiration throughout Seattle’s Black communities.
“Those fabulous young women were the talk of the town and community as some of the best softball players of the mid-late 1930s,” Johnson-Toliver mentioned.
The Owls Club consisted of Lillian Brown, catcher Regiena (Twaites) Brown, first baseman Mary (Yarbra) Turner, second baseman Melvina Freeman, third baseman and pitcher Harriett (Bruce) Booker, shortstop Alice (Powell) Tanner, proper fielder Mary (Porter) Tanner, left fielder Elizabeth “Dolly” (Martin) Smith, middle fielder Evelyn Williamson, and subs Roberta (Johnson) Fair and Ina Miller.
Johnson-Toliver provides that the Owls performed in opposition to all groups that consisted of Black and White gamers.
Fans may come out to observe the Owls play at Sick’s Stadium, which is now a Lowe’s on Rainier Avenue in Seattle.
According to a May 6, 1938, article in The Northwest Enterprise, the Owls debuted with a 1-0 win over Quesmar AC in an exhibition sport.
Al Smith, in his article, described followers taking to the Owls gamers “from the minute they went on the field to the minute they left.”
Behind house plate of their exhibition sport was Twaites, who Smith mentioned was “a very good catcher” and that “while warming up for the game, caught for two of the boys’ team pitchers, who remarked at Miss Twaites’ catching abilities.”
The workforce went on to win its first state championship, defeating Manette 21-1 on August 28, a Sunday; the sport was referred to as in the fifth inning.
Lillian Brown struck out 12 batters on the Manette workforce, in keeping with a September 2, 1938, Northwest Enterprise article.
The Owls stormed out of the gate, scoring 5 runs in the first inning. In the fourth, they tacked on 4 extra runs, highlighted by a house run from Lillian Brown. The fifth inning proved explosive: 16 Owls got here to the plate, leading to 11 runs.
Brown was dominant on the mound, limiting Manette to simply three hits, whereas the Owls racked up 18. Martin stood out at the plate, going four-for-four.
With the Owls main 21–1 in the fifth inning, the sport was referred to as early; Manette’s solely run got here in the third.
The Owls had been awarded a placing 30-inch trophy and small gold baseballs to commemorate their victory.
In 1939, the workforce — now referred to as the Brown Bombers, although it’s unclear why it modified its identify — labored to defend its title.
In a September 1, 1939, article, the Bombers claimed their second consecutive state championship on August 27, 1939, behind the pitching of Lillian Brown, who defeated the Manette women’ workforce 11-3.
The final article mentioning the softball workforce was printed on September 27, 1939, when a dance was held in the workforce’s honor.
Yet, for all their success, little is thought about the gamers since their second straight title.
According to Alice Powell’s nephew, Richard Powell, his cousin Cherron Papillion had written about their aunt Alice, which they shared with NCS Sports.
Papillion shared that Alice moved to Seattle at age 12.
After graduating from highschool, Alice was decided to play softball. In the Thirties, unable to hitch any white groups, she and her finest pal organized their very own workforce—The Owls Club—the state’s first all-Black girls’s softball workforce, in keeping with Papillion.
Johnson-Toliver mentioned that, with the assist of the Seattle Black Genealogy Group, they discovered that the women seem in the Thirties-Nineteen Fifties census, however the path goes chilly from there.
However, in keeping with Johnson-Toliver, Alice Powell married Jack Tanner, the first Black American to function a federal district court docket decide in the Pacific Northwest, and was nominated by President Jimmy Carter in 1978.
Charlotte Wingo shared with NCS Sports that her aunt, Elizabeth Martin—nicknamed Dolly since childhood—was probably 18 when the pictures of the workforce had been taken by Al Smith.
After her softball days, Dolly moved to San Francisco and labored as a secretary on Angel Island, a spot with its personal storied historical past.
As for why the workforce disbanded, Wingo mentioned there is no such thing as a particular clarification, however she suspects World War II performed a task. “I believe Washington State’s role in World War II was ramping up around 1940, so that may have played a part,” she mentioned. “I do know that my aunt worked at the Todd Shipyard during the early war years.”
Wingo added that the Owls had been a touring workforce that performed a championship sport in Portland, Oregon.
Afterward, a banquet was deliberate for them, however the location needed to be modified as a result of the workforce couldn’t safely attend or stay in the space – a element Wingo mentioned she solely just lately realized.
Seattle has deep roots in Black baseball and softball. Those ties are actually honored at Steelheads Alley, a brewery and museum house throughout from T-Mobile Field, house of the Seattle Mariners, Johnson-Toliver mentioned.
Operated by a Black-owned brewer in partnership with the Mariners, Steelheads Alley homes a Memory Wall – a robust tribute that features photographs of The Owls Club, preserving its place in Seattle sports activities historical past.
The Owls’ supervisor, Bruce Rowell, was additionally a co-owner of the Seattle Steelheads, a Negro League baseball workforce that performed for only one season.
For Johnson-Toliver, the Owls Club has a private connection. Her Aunt June married into one of Seattle’s pioneering Black households, the Whites. After June handed, her brother-in-law revealed that his sister Betty — now additionally gone — had performed for The Owls Club.
“I hope to confirm this family story someday,” Johnson-Toliver mentioned, her voice carrying each surprise and resolve. “It’s a rabbit hole that has us all wanting to find descendant members of the team. You’ve fueled our fire.”
And perhaps that’s what softball — and sports activities, actually — has at all times been about: connection, rediscovery, and the tales we hold alive.
Every base, each inning, and each identify remembered is one other step in the direction of honoring those that made the sport doable.