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The Secret History ofLittle League’s First Girl
Today you can sign up for almost any sport you want. But it wasn’t so easy for Tubby Johnston.
Courtesy of Kathryn Johnston Massar/World of Little League Museum (Tubby Johnston); Nor Gal/Shutterstock.com (Glove)
In the spring of 1950, a new kid named Tubby Johnston showed up for Little League tryouts in Corning, New York. No one recognized him. But he was good—really good. It was no surprise when Tubby made the team.
About a week later, the new kid shocked everyone. Tubby revealed that his real name was Kathryn. For the first time ever, a girl was playing Little League Baseball.
It’s Not Fair
When Kathryn Johnston was growing up, it wasn’t easy for a girl to play sports. At school, girls could join the tennis, swimming, or track team. Usually, those were the only choices. At the 1948 Summer Olympics, there were 136 events. Women competed in 19 of them.
But Kathryn loved sports. She played baseball with her father whenever she could. Pretty soon, she could hit better than her brother, Tommy. But it was Tommy who got to play Little League. Kathryn told her mother it wasn’t fair. Her mother’s response: “Why don’t you try out?”
Together, they cut off Kathryn’s long braids. Kathryn borrowed a pair of Tommy’s pants. She tucked the rest of her hair under one of his hats. By the end of the day, she was playing first base for the King’s Dairy team.
Secret’s Out
Rob Carr/Getty Images
Girl Power
Mo’ne Davis became a star player during the 2014 Little League World Series. She’s just one of the hundreds of thousands of girls to play Little League Baseball since Tubby Johnston.
Before long, Kathryn realized she couldn’t keep her secret forever. So she told the coach. “If you’re good enough to make the team,” he said, “you’re good enough to stay on the team.”
Kathryn’s teammates welcomed her right away. But players from other teams tried to push her around. Parents told her she didn’t belong on the field. “They could see that I was a better player than some of their sons,” Kathryn says.
But Kathryn was the last girl to play for a long time. After that season, Little League officially banned girls from playing. The decision became known as the “Tubby Rule.”
In the next 20 years, the world changed. Women fought for equal rights. A law called Title IX was passed in 1972. It required public schools to offer more sports for girls. And in 1974, Little League finally got rid of the Tubby Rule.
Since then, hundreds of thousands of girls have played Little League Baseball. Millions more have participated in high school sports. Kathryn—who is 81 now—has advice for them all. “You need to dream big,” she says. “Because that’s what I did.”
ACTIVITY:
Why did Kathryn pretend to be a boy?
Write a paragraph to answer this question. Get started by using facts from the article to finish the sentences below.
Topic Sentence: In 1950, Kathryn Johnston dressed as a boy because: ___
The main idea of your paragraph: What did Kathryn want to do that no girl had done before?
Detail 1: At that time, girls who wanted to play sports ___
What kinds of chances did girls have to play sports?
Detail 2: Kathryn was great at playing baseball, but ___
Who could and could not play Little League back then?
Detail 3: To try out for a Little League team, Kathryn had to___
How did Kathryn get people to think she was a boy?
Conclusion: Kathryn showed that girls can play baseball as well as boys can by___
How did Kathryn’s tryout go?
