The Central Michigan University’s women Softball Videotapes, 1981-2015, and undated, consist of taped recordings documenting the team. The majority of the tapes cover games played by the team, but a few tapes feature practices/scrimmages, trips, holiday events, and award ceremonies. While most tapes provide specific dates, numerous feature just the year or the opponents. These partially unidentified tapes are organized at the end of the chronological ordering for each year. Some tapes are labeled specifically for tournaments, such as National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) Tournament, and these are kept together. The format of the tapes are VHS, VHS-C, HI-8, and MiniDVs, with MiniDVs being the majority of the collection.
Processing Note: During processing 17 miniDVs, 4 VHS-Cs, and 1 High-8 were withdrawn as they were unlabeled, and the format is inaccessible on current CMU equipment.
Organizational History:
Central Michigan University women’s Softball team was given the approval to become a varsity sport at the university in July of 1978 due to growing interest after being established as a club team in 1977. In July 1978, Athletics Director Ted Kjolhede noted that “softball pretty much rounded out our women’s program,” (Sports News, July 10, 1978). Women’s athletic programs were established as programs rather than extracurricular activities due to Title IX. The program was a varsity sport prior to the 1970s, but was disbanded due to early graduation conflicting with dates of games. With the title of varsity sport, the university offered multiple scholarships. The program has been a strong challenger in the Mid-American Conference since installation at CMU (This information is from the CMU. Athletics collection, Women’s Softball folders).
Coach Margo Jonker joined the women’s Softball team as head coach in 1980 and led the team to many achievements outside of her own. In her 39 years as coach, the Chippewas saw 10 Mid-American Conference (MAC) regular-season titles, 10 MAC Tournament Championships, and 13 appearances at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Tournament. The program set numerous records, such as the 1982 team’s 51-12 record (most wins ever) and the 2002 team’s .958 win percentage by finishing 23-1. The team honored Jonker and her efforts in the program by renaming the Chippewas’ softball facility to Margo Jonker Stadium in 2008. (This information is from the CMU Athletics Softball roster information, https://cmuchippewas.com/sports/softball/roster/coaches/margo-jonker/540, accessed 19 October 2020).
The only student named on the original labels is pitcher Judy Koens, who attended CMU 1981-1984 (see Box 1 folder VHS, 2, pitching, ceremony, 1981-1985).
