Who is the best female athlete ever? It might be someone you probably never hear of.
Her name was Joan Joyce, a native of Waterbury, Connecticut, who died last year at the age of 81. If you have never heard of her it's because she came along before the NCAA began sponsoring women's sports.
Softball was her main sport, but not her only sports. He defined the term multi-sport athlete.
Joyce was a softball pitcher for the Raybestos Brackettes of Stratford, Connecticut and the Organ Lionettes of Orange, California from 1954 until 1975. But to simply say she was a softball pitcher would be like simply saying Willie Mays was a center fielder.
In 1974, Joyce pitched the Bracketts to the Women’s Softball World Championship, the first American team to win it. She pitched three no-hitters during the tournament and a one-hitter against Japan in the championship game
Over 19 seasons, Joyce compiled a 753-42 record. She pitched 150 no hitters, including 50 perfect games, fanned more than 10,000 batters and had a career ERA of 0.09. That computes to one earned run allowed every 11 games. She also had a .327 career batting average.
In exhibitions, she struck out Ted Williams and Hank Aaron, prompting Aaron to say “She was something else.”
Joyce’s other sports were basketball, volleyball, golf and bowling. In basketball, she competed in the Women’s Basketball Association and the Amateur Athletic Union, with a career average of 30 points, including an AAU single game record of 67 points.
For volleyball, Joyce organized the Connecticut Clippers and competed in the United States Volleyball Association national tournament from 1969 to 1974.
At age 35 she took up golf and within two years qualified for the LPGA tour, competing for 19 years, with a record of 17 putts in one round. Less than a month after taking up bowling, Joyce won the Connecticut state title.
Joyce is a member of nine halls of fame, including the International Women’s Sports Hall of Fame, the National Softball Hall of Fame and the International Softball Federation Hall of Fame.
Joyce was the softball coach at Florida Atlantic University for 28 years prior to her death March 26, 2022, with a 1002-674 record and nine appearances in the NCAA tournament.
