Dorothy "Dot" Elsie Wilkinson

Dot Wilkinson (October 9, 1921 – March 18, 2023) was a spunky ten-year-old in Phoenix, Arizona when she was approached by a grammar schoolteacher and softball coach, Ford Hoffman. “How would you like to someday play on a team that goes to Chicago to play in the World Softball Championships?”

Dot had no idea where Chicago was, but she said, “Yes,” anyway. She just wanted to play ball.

From that moment forward, softball dominated Dot’s life, and Dot dominated softball. For thirty-two years, from 1933-1965, Dot played for the PBSW Phoenix Ramblers. The Ramblers’ manager, Ford Hoffman, made good on his promise, taking Dot and the team to the World Softball Championships at Soldier Field in Chicago for the first time in 1937. Dot, who was fifteen years old at the time, batted leadoff and went 1 for 4. “I was never intimidated or afraid. I knew I could play ball, and that’s all I wanted to do.”

In 1960, Sports Illustrated called Dot “the female Yogi Berra.” She is a member of the National Softball Hall of Fame, the National Bowling Hall of Fame, the Arizona Softball Hall of Fame, and the Arizona Sports Hall of Fame, among others. Dot was a 19-time All-American—earning her more All-American honors than any other player in history. By the time she retired from softball, Dot was widely considered the greatest catcher ever to play the game of women’s softball—she still is.

Along the way, Dot developed a reputation for being a tough, hard-headed player. In one instance, believing the second-base umpire made a bad call, Dot leapt up from her position, ran out to confront him, and lifted him up by his shirt collar. He tossed her out of the game. Dot responded that it didn’t matter, that was the last out. Unfortunately for her, while it was the end of the seventh inning, the Ramblers were playing at Fresno, where the teams were scheduled to play nine innings.

Fellow National Softball Hall of Famer Carol Spanks likes to tell the story of trying to take out Dot, sliding into home plate, and finding herself instead flying through the air into the backstop.

Even the fans weren’t immune from run-ins with Dot. In one game in the early 1940s between the Ramblers and their crosstown rival and arch-nemesis, the Queens, one belligerent fan sitting behind home plate heckled Dot once too often. Dot walked to the backstop and warned the gentleman that if he said one more word, she was going to come after him. He did, and she did. When the game ended, she ran after him. He ran into the men’s room, thinking he’d be safe there. Dot followed him into the men’s room and whacked him over the head with her catcher’s mitt.

Stories like these involving Dot abound. In a career that spanned three decades and three national championships, Dot was the living embodiment of top-shelf women’s amateur softball.

“I just loved the game. Softball meant everything to me.”

Softball provided a young, feisty farm kid from South Phoenix, Arizona, who grew up with no indoor plumbing, an opportunity to see the country. In 1938, Dot and her Rambler teammates traveled from the National Softball Championship in Chicago (where they lost in the semifinals) to New York City and the fabled Madison Square Garden for a two-game set against the New York Roverettes. Because of the terrazzo flooring in the Garden, the Ramblers were required to wear sneakers in place of their usual metal cleats. In the first game, played before a record indoor crowd of 12,500 spectators, the Ramblers beat the Roverettes handily, 4-1.

The day of the second game, Ramblers’ coach Ford Hoffman arranged for the team to meet Mayor Fiorello La Guardia’s secretary at City Hall, tour the World’s Fair grounds, lunch with World Heavyweight Champion Jack Dempsey at his restaurant, and pose for photographs on the rooftop of Radio City Music Hall with the famed Rockettes. After a couple of hours of rest, the Ramblers returned to the Garden to be greeted by an even larger crowd—this time 13,500. In a raucous, eighteen-inning affair, the Ramblers emerged victorious, 2-0. Dot had the game-winning RBI.

In 1940, that memory was eclipsed when the Ramblers’ won their first-ever World Softball Championship, beating Koch Furniture of Cleveland by the lopsided score of 10-3. The win took two days to accomplish. On the original night of the final contest, the skies opened and rain forced the postponement of the game in the third inning. At the time, the Ramblers were up, 3-1.

The win marked the first major championship by any sports team of any gender in Phoenix, and the city celebrated by throwing the Ramblers’ a heroes’ welcome home. In addition to being given the key to the city, the Ramblers were feted with a ticker-tape parade through the streets. Dot and her teammates waved from open convertibles to the crowd that lined the sidewalks.

“Winning that first championship was the highlight of my softball career. Nothing else, not any personal honor or award, ever came close to that feeling of accomplishment. Boy, we were walking on air.”

And Dot didn’t just excel at softball, she also was a championship-caliber bowler. In 1962, she won the Women’s International Bowling Championship (the Queens tournament), propelling her into the ranks of professional bowlers. In 1990, she was inducted into the National Bowling Hall of Fame.

Dot, a lifelong resident of Phoenix, Arizona, was pre-deceased by her partner of 48 years, fellow National Softball Hall of Famer Estelle “Ricki” Caito (September 14, 1925 - January 9, 2011). Together, Dot and Ricki began “flipping” houses in the early 1960s, long before flipping houses was a thing. At one point, they owned upward of fifty houses in downtown Phoenix. “We did all the work ourselves. We would find old, rundown properties and make the owner an offer. Then we’d fix them up and rent them to folks who couldn’t afford to otherwise get a mortgage. It wasn’t an easy way to make a living, but I’m proud of everything we accomplished.”

“I’ve had a great, long life. I have no regrets. I love everybody, and I hope everybody loves me.” Dot Wilkinson was 101.

Lynn Ames is the author of the upcoming authorized biography, Out at the Plate: The Dot Wilkinson Story, to be released by Chicago Review Press on October 17, 2023.

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.Greenwoodmemorylawn.com for the Wilkinson family.