In Chicago on Thanksgiving Day, 1887; a small group of men waited at the gymnasium of the Farragut Boat Club to hear the outcome of the football game between Harvard and Yale. Once Yale’s victory was announced, a man picked up a lonely boxing glove and threw it at another man who hit it with a stick. George Hancock, considered the inventor of softball, tied the boxing glove together to make a ball, chalked a diamond on the floor of the gym (smaller than a baseball field so it would fit in the gym) and broke a broom handle to serve as a bat. Although Chicago was the birthplace of softball, a close but modified game was created in Minneapolis in 1895. A fire department officer named Lewis Rober, Sr., wanted his men to stay busy and in shape during their free time. He created a game to fit the size of a vacant lot near the firehouse. When Rober was moved to a new unit, in his honor they named his game “kitten ball”.

In 1965 a women’s softball was developed and was made into an international game. In 1976 the International Women’s Professional Softball League was formed. Players got paid $1,000 to $3,000 per year, but the league fell through in 1980 caused by financial issues. Women’s fastpitch softball popularity has increased steadily since the professional league ended in 1980. The Olympics has helped greatly to get this sport publicity. On June 13, 1991, softball was announced to be inducted into the 1996 Olympics at Atlanta, Georgia. Since 1997 the number of Division I softball teams has grown from 222 to 277. Along with those numbers the number of youth teams has grown from 73,567 to 86,049.