CARLI Digitized Book of the Month – April 2015

Illowoco (1943)

April marks the beginning of baseball season, and these young women are ready for the next pitch. This photo from the 1943 yearbook for MacMurray College features players on the school’s softball team. I love the uniforms and the vintage catcher’s mask which only protects her eyes. But, mostly I love the look of intense focus in the batter’s eye. She may share a small smile alongside the grinning members of the opposing team, but she is preparing to swing that bat.

According to the text on the preceding page, sports activities on campus were organized by an Athletics Association Council comprised of students, and each sport’s manager “was responsible for contacting the student body and making her sport attractive enough to get the students to go out for it.” The yearbook lists a wide variety of active teams including hockey, badminton, archery and golf, so the managers were clearly successful at getting the word out.

MacMurray College was founded as an all-female institution and did not become fully co-educational until 1969. Women’s softball still plays a role in the college’s athletic department.

Written by Alice Creason, Systems/Digital Collections Librarian, Lewis University

This volume was contributed by MacMurry College. You can find this volume and others from CARLI participant libraries in the Internet Archive.