The B’ Athletes softball team was formed in the Fall of 1992 as an alternative to the negative influences experienced in the neighborhoods where the players lived. The team was comprised of baseball, basketball, football, and track stars from high school and college. For many years, the team played in parks on the South and …
Traffic is a classic neighborhood softball team from the Riis Park area that evolved into a consistent top- fifteen team. They started playing in a Sunday league at Riis Park in 1986. In 2011, they took second in the Westchester Tournament of Champions and finished fifth in the Forest Park No Gloves Nationals in …
The Saints sixteen-inch softball team first played in the Darien Park District League in the late 1970s. They were sponsored by Our Lady of Peace Church. Its pastor, Reverend Alphonse Mika, served as their first general manager. Father Al later joined forces with softball veteran Mike Paulo to take a group of neighborhood players …
In 1946, Mr. William Ahern Sr. established the Peppers as a South Side neighborhood team. They were a powerhouse from the beginning, winning money and beer games that were prevalent at the time. In 1965, William Ahern Jr. (Bill), the oldest son of the founder, took over the reins of the team and began …
Deathwish was founded and managed in 1979 by Carey B. Goins with his Phi Beta Sigma fraternity brothers, friends and family. They played their first year in Avalon Park on Chicago’s South Side. With Ted Gothard added as coach, the team began playing in the Washington Park Sunday League in 1980 and the Budweiser …
The Stompers were started in 1976 when a bunch of friends from the Gailwood neighborhood got together together to play a team from another park in the area. They were successful, so one of their players entered them in the Amundsen Park League. Unfortunately they didn’t have a team name when they registered, so the …
In 1974 a team known as the South Side Devils began playing sixteen-inch softball. In January of 1980 they officially changed their name to the Hot City Rollers/ Travelling All-Stars (founding members Melvin Robinson, Michael Lamar Jordan, Robert Common, and Curtis Granderson) after meeting with Henry Hoskins, owner of the Hot City Lounge on Chicago’s …
It was approximately the summer of 1973 when Louis “Butch” Whiters and Richard “Bro” Mason were sitting on a porch near 58th and Ada discussing how the neighborhood kids had nothing constructive to do because there were no health centers of recreational facilities available. So they decided to help the neighborhood kids by forming …
The Miller 45s dominated the softball world during their peak years: 2001 to 2009. The foundation for that sustained excellence began in 1988, the birth year of the Bud 45s. The Bud 45’s struggled through their early years in the Mt. Prospect Classic League and Des Plaines Power League, the top talent leagues on the …
In 1981, the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago (RIC) established the Virginia Wadsworth Wirtz Sports Program, a community-based adaptive sports program for youth and adults with physical disabilities. Thirty years later, it has become one of the longest running adaptive sports programs in the country offering a wide range of competitive and recreational sports opportunities …
