Honoured Members Database

1965 C.U.A.C. Blues Softball Team Roster:

Jo-Ann Bedrich, Grace Bouchard, Lauri Bradawaski, Judy Cochrane, Heather Hextall, Joan Ingram, Darlene Kellsey, Frankie Little, Dianne Martin, Helen McFarlene, Gail Roberts, Dot Rose, Bev Sawchuk, John Shaley, Stan Shaley, Alda Tait, Joyce Tully, Rita Woodlands, Joanne Vincelette.

We talk of dynasties in sport when a team is victorious for three or four seasons in a row. What should we term a streak of 17 consecutive championships? The women's softball teams of the Canadian Ukrainian Athletic Club recorded that remarkable achievement in winning the Greater Winnipeg Senior “A” women's titles every year from 1957 to 1973.

Along the way, the CUAC Blues won Western Canada championships in 1957 and 1959, and then hit a pinnacle in 1965, capturing the first Canadian Senior women's title for a Manitoba team. John Shaley, who served as manager or coach of the Blues for 33 years, called the 1965 national crown his biggest thrill on the road to induction into the Softball Canada Hall of Fame. His brother Stan Shaley coached the Blues from 1962 to 1973.

CUAC won the '65 championship at home, going unbeaten in a double knockout five-team tournament at Winnipeg Stadium. They clinched it on August 29th, 1965, by beating Victoria Vikettes twice, by 11-4 and 8-4 scores. Left fielder Bev Sawchuk hit a grand slam homer in the first game of the finals, and made a spectacular catch which she turned into a double play to snuff out Victoria's last rally in the wind-up. Dot Rose was a hitting and pitching star for CUAC in the tournament, and 18-year-old Portage high schooler Frankie Little blanked the Vikettes with six innings of relief pitching to earn the victory in the final game.

The rest of the team that orchestrated Manitoba's finest hour in women's softball were infielders Joan Ingram, Laurie Bradawaski, Judy Cochrane, Joyce Tully, and Rita Woodlands, Alda Tait and Grace Bouchard joining Sawchuk in the outfield, pitcher Darlene Kellsey, and utility players Heather Hextall, Jo-Anne Bedrich, Helen McFarlane, Gail Roberts, Dianne Martin, and Joanne Vincelette.

1965 C.U.A.C. Blues Softball team is also a member of the Manitoba Softball Hall of Fame.