Margaret Gisolo

Margaret Gisolo (October 21, 1914 – October 20, 2009) was an American sportswoman and educator who while still a child was a pioneer in the history of women in baseball as the first girl to play American Legion baseball, a predecessor of Little League. At the time, she was "featured in newspapers across the country".

When her team defeated the Clinton Baptists, the losing team complained that regulations said "any boy was permitted to play" meaning girls were excluded, and therefore Gisolo should not have been playing. However, the administrators decided that in view of the role women had played in wartime and in the American Legion, there was no reason why she could not continue. Blanford went on to win the state championship on the way to a semifinal defeat in the national championship. The following year, the American Legion banned girls from baseball, citing the expense of separate facilities.

Later life After her school education in Jacksonville Elementary School in Blanford, and Clinton High School in Clinton, Indiana, from which she graduated in 1931, she attended college, gaining her bachelor's degree from Indiana State University in 1935 and a Master of Arts from New York University in 1942. Gisolo also played baseball on barnstorming teams, with Maud Nelson among others.

After the war, she taught dance at Indiana University of Pennsylvania from 1947 to 1952. She joined the faculty at Arizona State University in 1954, co-founding a School of Dance based on the modern dance component of the physical education department, she is also cited by dancer Bill Evans as his "dance mother".

After her retirement from Arizona State, she played seniors tennis, and was nationally ranked until retiring aged 86: at her retirement she was ranked first in doubles and second in singles for her age group. 2004 Inducted into National Italian American Sports Hall of Fame