20 Year Reunion

CONNECTICUT FALCONS SET FOR A 20-YEAR REUNION

Five-inning game at Falcon Field will highlight weekend (By Bryant Carpenter, Record-Journal staff)

MERIDEN – Fran Sarullo is now Dr. Fran Sarullo, a chiropractor, Irene Shea now runs the athletic department at California State University in Sacramento. And Joan Joyce, the most household name of all, is coaching at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton.

Come next month, they and a couple dozen former teammates will be Connecticut Falcons once again. Organizers are calling it “Remember When.” On Friday night, Aug. 13, on the diamond where 20 years ago they ruled the International Women’s Professional Softball League, former members of the Falcons will return to Falcon Field for a five-inning game.

It’s part of a 20^th reunion weekend that will include a gold outing, dinner at the Hawthorne Inn and plenty of catching up. “We’re so excited about it,” said Southington High assistant principal Fran D’Angelo, a former team and league official. “It’s been 20 years. Everybody went their own way.”

The upcoming Falcons event calls to mind the reunion scene from “A League of Their Own,” the 1992 Penny Marshall movie chronicling the All-American Girls’ Professional Baseball League, which was created during World War II after the draft depleted Major League rosters.

Like the All-American league, the WPS circuit that brought pro softball to Connecticut enjoyed only a brief existence (1976-79). But the players who suited up in both leagues can be seen as pioneers who took the first steps in the long march to gender equity in sports.

Two decades before the U.S. women’s soccer team was filling the Rose bowl, Joan Joyce was electrifying crowds with her lightning fastballs. Two decades before those American soccer women would beat the Chinese in the World Cup, the Falcons toured China, putting on instructional clinics and playing games against national teams.

“Our attempt was probably very significant in the history of women’s sports, “said D’Angelo of the WPS. “We were important in women’s sports, and certainly women’s softball in Connecticut.”

It was at a state softball banquet last year that the idea of a Falcons reunion first arose. Willie Roze, a former Falcon, was being honored. D’Angelo and few other league officials were there with John Salerno of Southington, who was instrumental in starting the WPS and eventually served as its commissioner.

Agreeing on a reunion was one thing. Finding alumni was another. Thanks to the internet, former Falcons team photographer Joan Chandler was able to complete addresses. “She is the Colombo of missing Falcons,” D’Angelo claimed.

The first call went out to Joyce. Without her, there really could be no reunion. “Joan, when can you make it?” Once a date was nailed down, invitations went out. So far, 20 players have committed.

The Falcons will be split into two squads for the Aug. 13 game. One will be built around Joyce and fellow pitcher Sandy Fischer. Pitchers Kathy Neal and Margaret Rebenar will anchor the other squad. Former announcer Fred Landau will be back at the microphone.

Some former players are now coaching. Fischer has the head job at Oklahoma State. Sharron Backus and Judy Martino are coaching in the Women’s Pro Softball League, a three-year-old circuit based in the southeast.

Most of the women will be coming from out of state, including Rebenar from California and Karen Gallagher from Wisconsin. “They’re all dying to come,” said D’Angelo. “So we’re planning.”

“This will be a good opportunity for former fans to revisit with players,” remarked former Falcons coach Brenda Reilly. “And it will be a great chance for young girls playing softball today to meet some of the women who made professional softball happen in Connecticut.”

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