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Nellie, at age 50, served as assistant director of the
Crawford Field summer playground in Dudley where she encouraged boys and girls to play baseball on coed teams. In the late 1960s she co-founded and co-directed the Dudley Lassie League, and also coached one of its first teams. Nellie continued to
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Her absence from the
Bartlett team in the spring of 1936 caused a local uproar. The student body, team members and local fans marched in protest from the school to the principal's home. Baseball coach, George Finnegan, the school board and the principal later reversed the decision to bar her. Nellie
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that during 1935, 15-year-old Nellie
Twardzik gained national recognition when she beat out twenty-five boys to make the Bartlett baseball team. At the time, there were no written gender rules that applied to baseball. Although Nellie was first celebrated for winning a position on Webster's varsity
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Nellie was born at home in the
Jericho section of Dudley, the daughter of Jacob and Anna (Wojdacz) Twardzik. She was the youngest sister of Joseph, William, Stella, Helen, Mary and Chester Twardzik. As a young girl she learned to play baseball with her older brothers, Joseph and William, who played
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Nellie married her high school sweetheart, James "Jim" Thompson. He attended the
University of Alabama and served as a Navy pilot during World War II and the Korean Conflict. They had 5 children, Patricia, Kathleen, Mary Ellen, Joanne and Joseph. Nellie's Park, the site of the former Stevens Linen
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Nellie was also an honor student and served on the
Student Council at Bartlett. She was a leading guard and captain on the girls’ varsity basketball team and lettered for three years. Winning her place on the boys' varsity baseball team and keeping it, however, was more challenging for a girl in
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By the time Nellie arrived at
Bartlett High School as a Sophomore, she was already an outstanding ball player. She had been playing for teams on sand lots and in open fields around Webster, Dudley and the surrounding areas for years. Nellie soon won the distinction, for which she gained national
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Newspapers referred to Nellie
Twardzik as the “Babe Ruth” of Webster. In April 1936 Bob Coyne of the Boston Post penned a caricature and article entitled, “Oh Boy What a Girl!” featuring Nellie's baseball skills and the challenge of keeping her on the team. All the publicity generated from the
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After graduating from High School, she played semi-pro ball for the
Watertown Nighthawks and later for the Loreto Ball Club. Her playing days ended around 1940 when most men started to leave the baseball ranks to join the World War II effort.
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controversy created even more interest in the team and the girl on first base. It was estimated that as many as 1,500 spectators attended high school games during those years, when previously games drew two or three hundred supporters.
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Sportswoman Award in that same year. On Mother's Day, May 13, 2006, Nellie
Twardzik's Bartlett High School letter and first baseman's glove were placed on permanent display in the "Diamond Dreams - Women in Baseball" exhibit at the
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semi-pro baseball. At age 13, Nellie played for the all male Dudley Athletic Club team. At age 14, her brother William started a semi-pro team called Nellie's All-Stars, with Nellie being the only girl on the team.
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At age 87, Nellie attended the exhibit's 2006 opening. She was recognized during the opening presentation by Hall of Fame Chairperson,
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216:(May 22, 1919 – March 8, 2013), at the age of 15, was the first girl to start on a high school boy's varsity baseball team in 1935. A
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since 1990. She was inducted into the Bartlett High School Sports Hall of Fame in 2004 and was recipient of the
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recognition, of being the first girl to start on a high school boy's varsity baseball team (April 24, 1935).
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team in 1935, she was blocked from trying out for the team in her second year because of her gender.
482:"Woman's trip from attic to Hall only took 50 years", Baltimore Sun, Phil Jackman, December 24, 1990
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native, she played first base at Bartlett High School for three years until her graduation in 1937.
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Nellie A. (Twardzik) Thompson, Obituary, Worcester Telegram & Gazette, March 8, 2013
374:"Worcester Telegram and Gazette Obituary, Nellie A. (Twardzik) Thompson, March 10, 2013"
354:"Bartlett High School Athletic Hall of Fame - Nellie (Twardzik) Thompson, Class of 1937"
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in July 2006. On September 9 that year, she threw out the ceremonial first pitch at
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play ball in the Southbridge Women's Softball League throughout the 1970s.
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Bartlett High School Sports Hall of Fame, Nellie Twardzik, Member Profile
439:"National Baseball Hall of Fame, Women in Baseball Exhibit Opening"
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National Baseball Hall of Fame, Women in Baseball Exhibit Opening
397:(6th ed.). Ill.: University of Illinois Press. p. 22.
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The National Baseball Hall of Fame and other awards and honors
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School in Dudley, was named in her honor in January 2013.
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School officials bar Nellie from rejoining team in 1936
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Baseball players from Worcester County, Massachusetts
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Stolen Bases: Why American Girls Don't Play Baseball
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Stolen Bases: Why American Girls Don't Play Baseball
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49:. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.
242:1935. It simply had never been done in America.
271:Nellie's scrapbooks have been enshrined in the
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109:Learn how and when to remove this message
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542:Basketball players from Massachusetts
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47:adding citations to reliable sources
537:American women's basketball players
298:Nellie was further honored at the
16:Baseball player (b. 1919, d. 2013)
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522:People from Dudley, Massachusetts
214:Aniela "Nellie" Twardzik Thompson
250:Jennifer Ring notes in her book
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532:American women baseball players
34:needs additional citations for
286:National Baseball Hall of Fame
273:National Baseball Hall of Fame
259:was allowed back on the team.
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128:Nellie Twardzik (Thompson)
300:Massachusetts State House
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459:"BaseballReference.com"
393:Ring, Jennifer (2009).
277:Cooperstown, New York
218:Dudley, Massachusetts
168:Dudley, Massachusetts
140:Nellie Twardzik, 1935
306:in a game where the
43:improve this article
312:Kansas City Royals
293:Jane Forbes Clark
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58:"Nellie Twardzik"
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379:2023-04-04
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340:References
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