Keith Filkins started playing sixteen-inch softball in 1986 with the Cougars. For the next thirty years, he played for some of the greatest softball teams of all time – Sports Station, the Whips, Lettuce, Team 714, Splinters, Puglise / Bucks, Flashback, Windy City, and the Millers 45s.
He has played every infield position and has received 1st Team All-American honors for every infield position – a feat that no one has ever accomplished. He has played on teams that have won ten ASA and SSA National Championships and ten Forest Park No-Glove Nationals titles.
Keith has been selected to thirteen ASA and SSA All-American teams.
- 1987 with Sportstation (ASA)
- 1988, 1989. and 1990 with the Whips (ASA)
- 1991 and 1992 with Lettuce (ASA)
- 1997 with Splinters (ASA)
- 1999 and 2000 with Puglise / Bucks (ASA)
- 2007 and 2008 with the 45s (ASA)
- 2013 with Windy City (SSA)
- 2016 with the 45s (SSA)
His Splinter teammates selected him as team MVP in 1997; the 45s did the same in 2016. In 2013 Keith and his brother Wally were named to the ASA Top 22 Players of the Past 50 Years list. Many players consider Keith to be one of the best to ever play sixteen-inch softball. Throughout his career, he has played for many legendary Hall of Fame managers of softball – Jim Lang, Jr., Rich Melman, Bob Russ, Sr., Ron Kubicki, Stan Patek, and Bob Rascia.
At fifty years of age, Keith still plays the game with the same zest and fire that he showed in 1986. In 2016 the SSA selected his as the MVP of the Majors Nationals Championship Tournament.
Keith and his wife, Joanna, have two children – Kaitlyn and Joey. They live in Hodgkins, Illinois, directly across a softball field where Keith spends time teaching his children the fundamentals of softball.