Softball Legend Dot Wilkinson Passes Away

Legendary softball player Dot Wilkinson passed away on Saturday at the age of 101.

The news of Wilkinson’s death was posted to social media by Lynn Ames, her friend and biographer.

Wilkinson played in from the 1930s to 1965, suiting up for the Phoenix Ramblers. At the beginning of her career, Wilkinson was 11 years old; she started as the Ramblers’ bat girl and made the team the same year, even at such a tender age.

The Ramblers won world championships three times in the 1940s, all with Wilkinson as one of the leaders on their roster. Wilkinson played for thirty years, earning 19 All-American awards, and was inducted into the National Softball Hall of Fame in 1970. She was later inducted into the Arizona Sports Hall of Fame in 1975, the first woman to be enshrined by her home state.

Sports Illustrated, in 1960, called Wilkinson “A Female Yogi [Berra}”. Later in her career, Wilkinson also served as a player-manager, guiding a team while also still suiting up between the lines.

The child of British parents who had emigrated to the United States in the 1910s, a decade prior to her 1921 birth, Wilkinson was born and raised in Arizona. Both during and after her softball career, Wilkinson was also a champion bowler; in 1990, Wilkinson was elected to the International Bowling Hall of Fame.