Katie Wares Stadel - Athletic Alumni 2004

If you're wondering who to blame for the tremendous boom in girl's/women's softball, Katie Wares Stadel is your culprit.  Now a member of the Michigan Amateur Softball Association Hall of Fame, Katie started with the Edwards Brothers Printing Company team in 1935, the first local team that played outside of Ann Arbor.  They borrowed uniforms from Jones School and headed for Lansing, Katie riding on the running board of the chaperone's Buick all the way to Lansing. She played shortstop without a glove and, because the car was too crowded, she hitchhiked back to Ann Arbor in her uniform. 

 

Later she saw a guy pitching windmill style at Wines Field and decided to change positions.  It worked out okay, as the inscription on her Hall of Fame Plaque reads, "She brought the windmill delivery to Ann Arbor." Katie pitched for the Silver Wings (1936-39), a team sponsored by Beer Depot owners Walt & Chris Frey. Later she played on clubs sponsored by Pfeiffer's Beer and Dad's Root Beer. Katie was the winning pitcher for Pfeifer in the state championship game, 1942.

 

Katie met her husband, Elmer Stadel, on the softball field (where else?) and their decision to have a family caused her to decline several invitations to play on the professional circuit.  The Stadels had twin sons and a daughter, which they parlayed into nine grandchildren and nine greats. Her son Jim remembers a day when his daughter was playing softball at Pioneer, "Mom nearly got kicked out of the stands because she was getting on the umpire so bad."

Mrs. Stadel now resides at Brookhaven Manor, where she frequently plants both feet on an imaginary rubber, presents the ball and windmills it to an unseen batter.

(Information taken from Faber's World by Don Faber, The Ann Arbor News)