Joanne McComb

Category

Joanne McComb was born March 1, 1933, in Avonmore, Pennsylvania. Upon graduation from Avonmore High School, she tried out and was chosen to play in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL), a league formed by Phillip K. Wrigley during World War II. She played first base for the Springfield Sallies in 1950. The team played on the east coast as well as in parts of Canada. Her favorite experience from playing in the League was participating in an exhibition game at Yankee Stadium before a Major League Baseball game between the New York Yankees and the Philadelphia Athletics. Some of the Yankees’ players served as the umpires and bat boys for the game.

After a year of playing in the AAGPBL, she left to pursue her college education at Slippery Rock University where she earned her B.S. in Health and Physical Education. She earned her master’s degree in physical education from Penn State University. She began her career in the Penn-Trafford school district until 1960 when she accepted a position at Bloomsburg University. While there, she taught physical education classes, which is what she enjoyed most. She strongly supported the Title IX Act getting signed into law and advocated for women’s athletics at the University.

She founded the varsity women’s basketball team, which she coached for the first six seasons of the program’s existence. As coach, she had a stellar record of 52 wins and 15 losses. This record ranks fifth on the school’s all-time career wins list and ranks second on the school’s all-time winning percentage list (.776). She, also, served as the Associate Director of Athletics for nine years. The University has named the Joanne McComb  Female Underclass Athlete of the Year Award in her honor and has been presented annually since 1977.

She retired in 1986 and was inducted into the Bloomsburg University Hall of Fame in 2019.  In 1987, she was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York as a part of its Women in Baseball exhibit. In 1992, the film, “A League of Their Own” was released, which is a fictionalized story of the actual AAGPBL.  Joanne appeared in the film along with other players from the League. She continues to be invited to various events, asked to sign autographs, and is proud to tell her story. Tonight, she will be inducted into the Luzerne County Sports Hall of Fame