Carol Spanks

Reprint from The Path to the Gold by Mary L. Littlewood

Carol Spanks once told a reporter, “I’d like to be playing forever rather than doing anything else.” That sums up how much Spanks enjoyed playing major fastpitch softball. Spanks played fastpitch softball for more than two decades for the Buena Park Kittens (1951-1953), Buena Park Lynx (1953-1957) and the renowned Orange Lionettes (1958-1975) before retiring.

Spanks pitched, played third base and shortstop during her career. She earned ASA All-American honors in 13 of the 19 ASA national championships in which she was a participant. Ten times she was a first team selection and three times a second team selection. She starred on four national championship teams (1962, 1965, 1969, 1970).

The Lionettes were members of the Pacific Coast Women’s League, and 16 times Spanks was named to the Pacific Coast Women’s League All-Star team. Five times she lead the league in hitting with averages of .328 (1954), .400 (1969), .321 (1970), .327 (1971), and .400 (1972), and six times she led the Lionettes in hitting. Three times Spanks batted .400 or higher in national championship play with a .438 average in 1967, .417 in 1972 and a .429 average in 1973. Two years later, in her last national championship, she batted .545. Her batting average in 15 of the ASA national championships was .300 (91/303). From 1967-1975, Spanks had an overall .322 batting average for the Lionettes with 700 hits out of 2,176 at bats in 686 games.

Besides excelling at bat, Carol also starred on defense and won the Erv Lind Award as the outstanding defensive player at the national championships three times (1968, 1969 and 1970). In the 1968 national championship, she had 27 assists, 26 putouts, and only one error at shortstop.

After winning the ASA national title in 1969, the Lionettes represented the USA in the second International Softball Federation Women’s World Fast Pitch Championship held in 1970 in Osaka, Japan. As a pitcher, Spanks compiled a win-loss record of 122-28 with an earned run average of 0.72. She allowed 112 earned runs, walked 162 and fanned 480.

After her amateur career, Sparks played one season, 1976, in the newly formed Women’s Professional League and earned All League Western Division honors. With an outstanding career concluded, Spanks turned to coaching women’s college softball and was named head coach at California Polytechnic Institute, Pomona, in 1978. Again the results were outstanding as she and former Orange Lionettes’ coach Shirley Topley coached Cal Poly Pomona for 15 years.

During that span, the Lady Broncos won 577 games, lost 310 and tied 5 for a winning percentage of .650. The team made 11 postseason appearances (three AIAW and eight NCAA). Five times her teams advanced to the NCAA Women’s College World Series, with the 1979 and 1988 squads finishing third in the nation. Nine times a Bronco player was named an All-American and 16 times was named first team All Big West. From 1989-1990, Cal Poly was a member of the Big West conference and the Broncos won the inaugural Big West Championship in 1985. In 1985 and 1989, Spanks was named Big West Conference Coach of the Year and twice the Broncos won 50 or more games. Sue Enquist, head coach at UCLA, said that “along with Topley, Carol established a reputation as the coach who was able to get the full potential out of her athletes. They believed they could beat anyone and often did.”

Carol was inducted into the National Softball Hall of Fame in 1981.

For more about Carol, see below.