'''Dot Wilkinson''' (born
October 9, 1921) is a famous former
softball and
bowling player who is a member of the halls of fame of both sports. The
Arizona native, a lifelong
Phoenix resident, also played
baseball for sometime, practicing with the ladies of baseball of the
1940s women's league that came back to the public light with the film
A League of Their Own.
Wilkinson played softball for nineteen years, from 1946 to 1965, helping her team, the
Ramblers, to the national title in 1957. She returned to the national finals in 1964, but the
Ramblers lost the championship series that year. She was an All-American each of her nineteen seasons as a professional softball player. Among her feats, she batted an average of .455 in 1954, .450 in 1955, and .387 on the
Ramblers championship year of 1957.
As a professional bowler, she won the
Women's International Bowling Queen's Tournament (a bowling triple crown event) in 1962, and the WIBC singles in 1963.
She was inducted into the softball Hall of Fame in 1970, her first year of eligibility. She was inducted into the bowling Hall of Fame twenty years later, in 1990.
Ms. Wilkinson occasionally attends high school, college and tournament softball games in Arizona, where she and some of her former teammates are honored constantly.
The Arizona Republic newspaper chose her at number eight among Arizona's all time greatest athletes in 1999.
Wilkinson, Dot
Wilkinson, Dot