YORKTON - The name Eleanor Callow won’t be particularly familiar to Canadian sports fans.
It should be, suggests her biographer Gary Belleville.
Belleville was doing some research several years ago for the Society for American Baseball Research, digging out information on the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League – yes the one made famous by the movie A League of Their Own.
“I was doing a series of articles on each year of league and I kept coming across the name (Eleanor Callow),” he explained in a Yorkton This Week interview.
Callow was a Canadian hailing from Winnipeg who patrolled outfield for the Rockford Peaches in the woman’s league helping the team win three consecutive league championships from 1948 to 1950. She was one of 68 Canadians to lay in the AAPGBL – 16 for the Peaches.
“I would say she was the top non-pitcher to ever play in the league,” said Belleville.
Belleville’s research certainly backs up that statement,
“Eleanor Callow was more than just the greatest power hitter in All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL) history. On top of being the all-time leader in home runs and triples, Callow was perhaps the league’s best all-around position player. A speedy outfielder with a strong throwing arm, Callow ranks in the Top 10 in career batting average and was one of only two AAGPBL players to post a 20–20 season,” he wrote in a SABR biography.
Despite being an obvious AAGPBL star, Belleville said she was a bit of a ghost in terms of easily accessible information, which left him asking “how did her history get lost?”
Belleville decided to find out, and dug into the dusty files of Rockford, where Callow played as a Peach, and in other newspaper archives from city’s around the league.
There was information, but also tons of holes, such as a maiden name – she was born Eleanor Margaret Knudsen he later learned – and when she died.
So Belleville shifted gears and began digging into genealogical sources.
“I started down that rabbit hole,” he said.
An ancestry page helped as he learned her birth date was off by 11 years. He also learned she had spent time in Saskatoon. Interestingly Callow had quite a Saskatchewan connection as well – albeit post her playing days. According to Belleville’s bio Callow moved to Melfort, Saskatchewan, late in 1964 before spending approximately two years in Regina. She was employed in Regina as a clerk at Macleod’s, the same chain of retail stores that she had worked for in Winnipeg as a teenager. Callow returned to Saskatoon early in 1968, working as a salesclerk at Macleod’s.”
It was through the Saskatoon Archives Belleville finally got the details he needed to follow Callow’s life as biographer.
“Everything opened up to me like the dam burst,” he said.
It had been a near three-month, non-stop effort.
“This woman had an incredible life, said Belleville.
He noted Callow came to his attention for baseball, but she was also an elite ice hockey player, playing for what was essentially a Canadian championship on a Winnipeg team versus a team from Moose Jaw in 1951.
“She had a goal and an assist in the first game in Moose Jaw . . . In a blizzard in front of a 1000 fans,” said Belleville, adding it is something to think about a women’s game drawing so many in 1951.
As a golfer Callow also qualified for the Canadian Open.
In terms of baseball, Belleville said the women who played in the AAPGBL often chose not to talk about it because few believed women ever played professionally even though the league existed from 1943 to 1954.
The A League of Their Own was released in 1992, and suddenly the former players were in the spotlight.
But not Callow who died in 1972.
“She was not around to be interviewed, and that’s kind of sad,” said Belleville.
But he did nominate Callow for inclusion in the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame, and she will be among the class of 2024 to be inducted this June 15th.
“I’m thrilled,” he said, adding she is clearly deserving of the honour.
