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Mildred Allen's Triboro Softball League fostered community pride across Pittsburgh

In 1960, the same year the Pittsburgh Pirates won their third World Series title, another athletic league was making a name for itself in the city. That’s when a Hill District native named Mildred Allen helped create one of the largest community athletic associations in Pittsburgh: the Triboro Softball League.

Credit Charles "Teenie" Harris / Carnegie Museum of Art, Charles "Teenie" Harris Archive
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Carnegie Museum of Art, Charles "Teenie" Harris Archive
Portrait of Mildred Allen posed on a step in front of the Falk School at the University of Pittsburgh in Oakland in September 1945.

Allen’s daughter, Beatrice Allen Harper, said her mother loved sports and channeled that passion into the teams she oversaw. She was a coach, a commissioner of the league and played second base on the Hill District Satelites. Harper said after word got around about the league, dozens of teams called her mother saying they wanted to join.

“They say, ‘Miss Allen, we got a team, we want to know if we can join your league,’” Harper said. “It was like the word of mouth and people just started calling her up and all.”

As a player-manager, Harper said her mother was strict. She would fine her players if they drank alcohol or smoked weed or went swimming before a game. All the women on her team had to have their hair done, and no one could wear dangly earrings.

“If someone messed up, she’d just cuss us out and make us to do it right,” Harper said.

The Satelites played teams from the North Side to McKeesport, with names from the Garfieldettes to the Homewood Orbits. At any given time across the city’s baseball diamonds during season, someone would be practicing. The Satelites played their home games at Ammon Field, now called Josh Gibson Field. Heinz History Senator Director of African American Programs Samuel Black said crowds of neighbors showed up for games.

“These leagues had a lot of fanfare,” Black said. “They had a big following and was really supported by the communities that they played in.”

Credit Charles "Teenie" Harris / Carnegie Museum of Art, Charles "Teenie" Harris Archive
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Carnegie Museum of Art, Charles "Teenie" Harris Archive
Group portrait of Ammon Center Married Women's volleyball team, from left, kneeling: Beatrice Mahaffey; second row: Irene Robinson and Pauline Penix; rear: Nettie Myers, Ruth Lucas, Mildred Allen, McInerny Woodson, and Delare Hill, posed possibly at the South Side Market House.

The Civil Rights movement was in full swing and the Triboro League provided an outlet for Black women who were struggling for equal rights. In 1970, they were sponsored by the African American nationalist group, the United Black Front. The organization held outreach activities, fought for civil rights and created economic development plans for Pittsburgh’s Black community.

“United Black Front were just trying to improve the living conditions of the community and provide not only education, but real life enrichment activities for the youth of the community,” Black said.

Allen, her husband, Thomas Allen and sister, Beatrice Mahaffey led the league for years, taking the women on trips to Canada and Ohio. Harper said the traveling was so the players could get out of Pittsburgh and see some of the country.

Credit Charles "Teenie" Harris / Carnegie Museum of Art, Charles "Teenie" Harris Archive
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Carnegie Museum of Art, Charles "Teenie" Harris Archive
Group portrait of "Satilites" softball team, standing from left: manager Henry "Cody" Simpson, co-captain Nettie Myers, Josephine Jackson, Betty Lewis, Shirley Brooks, Anna Mae Johnson, Arlene Washington, Captain Mildred Allen, Beatrice Mahaffey, Coach Thomas C. Allen; kneeling: Geraldine Frye, Carole Campbell, Phoebe Buchanan, Emily Neal, Rosalie Griffin, and Muriel Brandon posed on field, August 1960

“[The trips] were for everyone to say they’d been somewhere,” Harper said. She added that she’s often approached by women who remember her mother or playing on a Triboro team. It’s one reason she decided to donate many of her mother’s athletic memorabilia to the History Center.

The league disbanded in 1976. By that time, Allen’s Satelites had won a handful of league championships. The federal Title IX legislation had recently passed, requiring funding be allocated equally for men and women’s athletics and educational programs.  Harper said in the years following, her mother took up ceramics and babysat area kids.

In the years the Triboro teams played in Pittsburgh, Black said they were an important outlet for African Americans still struggling for equality. The league’s popularity and support illustrated the resiliency of the community.

“That type of impact, showing that this is something that can be done, this is something the community wanted, they followed through on it, and it lasted for nearly two decades.”

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Katie Blackley is a digital editor/producer for 90.5 WESA and 91.3 WYEP, where she writes, edits and generates both web and on-air content for features and daily broadcast. She's the producer and host of our Good Question! series and podcast. She also covers history and the LGBTQ community. kblackley@wesa.fm