HBIC Summer Project: Ollie's Got An Arm

After seeing all the great things that Evelyn "Evie" Wawryshyn Moroz did in her lifetime when it came to baseball and hockey, one might be wondering if the women featured and the stories of their achievements begin to lose some momentum. I can honestly say that the woman to the left has another incredible story about her sports achievements with a cool hockey tie-in, so buckle up for this one as we meet Olive "Ollie" Bend Little who played for the Rockford Peaches, but was born on May 7, 1917 in Poplar Point, Manitoba to John Pigott Bend - better known as JP or Jack - and Annie Ada Wilson as the middle child of the three children they had together. Along with brothers Robert and John "Lin" Bend, the three Bend kids were some of Manitoba's finest athletes!

Perhaps it wasn't coincidence that the Bend kids had athletic talent as their father, Jack, was a big believer in not wasting any talent by giving a lacklustre effort. Olive told Winnipeg Free Press writer Barbara Huck on February 3, 1984, "He felt that if you had talent, it was almost a sin to give it less than your best. So from the time I was ten, we spent an hour every night practising - half an hour grounding balls and half an hour pitching."

That daily practice that Jack put Olive through certainly helped her become one of the best pitchers in the province and country as she matured. While I question the process that Jack Bend was using back in the 1920s and 1930s, it seemed to benefit Olive as she was a star pitcher for Norwood Collegiate in her early days of playing ball. When Jack couldn't be there, her brothers were told to put her through the paces in her dad's place.

On August 11, 1937, the 20 year-old Bend pitched a no-hitter against the St. Boniface Athletics in Game One of their series to determine "top place in the Winnipeg Girls' Senior Softball League". Game One went to Norwood by a 6-2 score with the St. Boniface runs scored due to walks and errors, but Bend was throwing smoke all night as she struck out nine while walking eight hitters. It's not often one throws a no-hitter, gives up two runs, and walks eight batters, but Bend earned the win with that effort a shown in the recap from the Winnipeg Tribune.

The scary part about Bend's pitching is that she had also recorded a no-hitter six days earlier in a 4-1 win over the Ramblers on August 5, 1937 when she struck out 12 batters while walking six more. Back-to-back no-hitters are extremely rare in both baseball and softball, and even rarer when the same pitcher completes the feat. Only once in Major League Baseball history has that ever happened - Cincinnati's Johnny Vander Meer no-hit both the Boston Bees and the Brooklyn Dodgers in consecutive starts in 1938 - yet Olive's consecutive no-hit games weren't celebrated like Vander Meer's were!

Coincidentally, Norwood and St. Boniface would meet in the Winnipeg Girls' Senior Softball League best-of-five final both in 1937 and in 1939, but St. Boniface would best Norwood in both finals in five games. Bend, it should be noted, pitched all five games for Norwood in 1937 including being photographed on the right for the Winnipeg Tribune after Game Three, and more than 8000 people bought tickets to watch the series! The 1939 series was somewhat more heartbreaking as Bend delivered a solid performance in allowing eight hits, struck out nine batters, and walked just five. The only problem was that St. Boniface made their hits count as they captured the 1939 championship by a 9-6 Game Five score!

Norwood would struggle in 1940, and Bend would ask for her release from the team as she looked for new opportunities. She landed with the Canadian Ukrainian Athletic Club (CUAC) Blues in 1941, and they looked to keep her in the lineup as often as possible despite her commute every Tuesday and Friday from Poplar Point to pitch for CUAC. It was in her hometown where she worked as a teacher, and offers had begun to roll in from other teams for Bend to pitch for them over the summer break. One of those places was Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan where she spent a month on vacation in 1941. As noted by Jimmy Coo in the July 4, 1941 edition of the Winnipeg Free Press, there was a rumour she was doing some pitching while in Moose Jaw, so make note of the heavy foreshadowing I'm doing.

While in Moose Jaw, she accepted an offer to play with a not-very-good Royals team, and that's when things changed dramatically for Olive Bend. Eleven days after accepting the offer, Bend struck out 21 batters in a nine-inning game against the Regina Nut House Cashews (Teebz: fantastic team name!) to set a Moose Jaw girls' senior softball record. She was fanning batters at a pace unseen in Moose Jaw at any time, and helped them win the senior championship. She then returned home and continued to mow down batters as she helped the CUAC Blues win the Winnipeg Girls' Senior Softball League!

The following summer in 1942 saw Bend begin the season with the CUAC Blues once again only to join the Royals in July after the school year ended as they took their brand of softball south of the border. With Moose Jaw visiting Chicago for some exhibition softball action in mid-July, Bend put on a show for all those who came and watched, and one of those people was Philip K. Wrigley who looked to fill his baseball stadium with World War II starting. Wrigley's idea of an all-girls' professional baseball league was still just a seed in Wrigley's mind, but the fans who flocked to see the exhibition softball games allowed that seed to sprout!

As the exhibition tour continued and Wrigley's idea grew, Wrigley knew he needed the top female baseball players to make this work. He sent a number of scouts that he hired to all corners of the map to find the best women who could play ball in some form - baseball or softball - so he could begin getting rosters setup. One of those scouts he hired was Regina's Johnny Gottselig, a two-time Stanley Cup-winning left winger with the Chicago Black Hawks, who attended one of the softball exhibition games in Detroit that featured the Moose Jaw Royals. Gottselig was impressed by the Royals' pitcher, Olive Bend, and sent word back to Wrigley that he needed to sign her for his new girls' baseball league.

As Wrigley and Gottselig were looking for players for this newly-formed idea of a baseball league, Olive Bend returned home from the US and informed the team that she was getting married in August. George Little, Bend's fiancé, and Olive Bend were married on or around August 1, 1942. Little, it should be noted, was member of the Canadian military where he was known as Corporal George Little, and it wouldn't be long until he was being deployed to fight in World War II. Olive, meanwhile, would return to teach school in the winter of 1942 and spring of 1943 as another ball season approached.

That's when everything changed with one phone call as a scout had called the Little residence with an offer for Olive: come and join the new women's professional baseball league in the US! By her own admission, though, Little wasn't very excited at the thought of playing baseball in the United States until the two sides began to talk money. When she finally agreed to a contract, they had settled on $100/week to join the Rockford Peaches, making her one of the highest-paid baseball players in the AAGPBL.

"They offered me twice as much in a week as I had been making in a month teaching," Little exclaimed when talking to Barbara Huck. "How could I say no?"

Olive's 1943 season was certainly good enough to make her a star in the league. Rockford didn't fare so well as they went 23-31 in the first half and finished 25-23 in the second half. They did not qualify for the playoffs, but it was a different story for the fireballer named Little. On the mound and wearing #21, she went 21-15 with the league's third-best ERA (2.53) on the strength of eight shutouts, 151 strikeouts, and 112 walks. At the plate, she resembled a pitcher, however, as she had just 16 hits in 110 plate appearances for a .145 batting average with six RBIs. All 16 hits were singles, but she walked eight times, struck out nine times, stole four bases, and scored ten runs in 45 games.

Little's pitching skills quickly established her as the ace for the Peaches. She wasn't afraid to challenge hitters to hit strikes, but she also kept them honest by throwing a brushback pitch every15 Fort Wayne batters on June 28 now and then. Her popularity with fans grew in Rockford with each start, and her efforts would put her under the lights - literally - at Wrigley Field as the she voted in as a member of the 1943 AAGPBL All-Star Indiana-Illinois Team that played a night game at Wrigley Field, some 45 years before the first MLB game played under lights there in 1988!

Thanks to the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps, a WAAC softball game was scheduled for 6:00pm to allow more working women to attend on July 1, and they brought in a bank of portable lights to illuminate the field. Wrigley booked the AAGPBL All-Star Game for 8:30pm to follow the WAAC softball game, and the ladies played the first official night game at Wrigley Field! Over 10,000 women saw the Wisconsin All-Stars trounce the Indiana-Illinois All-Stars by a score of 16-0 in the game, but history was made!

Speaking of making history, Little would add her name to the AAGPBL lore in two ways. On June 10, 1943, Little tossed the AAPGBL's first no-hitter in a 7-2 win Rockford over the Kenosha Comets in just the 14th game in the history of the Rockford Peaches. And on August 15 in Game One of a seven-inning doubleheader against the South Bend Blue Sox, the Peaches gave Little an early 2-0 lead with which she could work, but Olive Little wasn't going to need a lot of offensive support on this day.

According to the Society for American Baseball Research, Little walked the first batter she faced before retiring the next eleven batters. Little walked the first batter she saw in the fifth inning before a fielder's choice kept Little's "no-no" intact. Little would then walk the third batter of the inning before getting out of the frame with a couple of pop-ups. From there, Little retired the final six Blue Sox batters to record the AAGPBL's first no-hit, no-run game as the Rockford Peaches defeated the South Bend Blue Sox 2-0!

Despite the highlights in 1943, the 1944 AAGPBL season would be played with Olive Little as she gave birth to a daughter, Bobbi, on June 3! Olive tried to return, but she ultimately decided there wasn't enough time for her to look after the new addition to the family and train to be in baseball shape, so she looked to the 1945 season for her return.

When she did return in 1945, Olive Little was a woman possessed. Now wearing #10, Little went 22-11 in 34 appearances for the Peaches, ending the season with a 1.67 ERA while recording 142 strikeouts and 140 walks in 295 innings pitched. She struck out 15 Fort Wayne Daisies batters on June 28, and then pitched a no-hit, no-run game against the Daisies less than two weeks later for her third no-hitter of her career! That prompted the league to move the mound from 40-feet to 42-feet away from the plate in order to help hitters!

Hitting still wasn't Little's forte, but she did up the number of hits she recorded. Little finished the season with a .167 batting average after going 18-for-110 at the plate. She had 15 singles, three doubles, nine RBIs, and seven walks while striking out just 16 times. I'm pretty certain the Peaches didn't worry about her hitting as long as she was winning games with her arm.

With two aces on the staff in Carolyn "India" Morris and Olive "Ollie" Little, the Peaches tore up the standings as they overwhelmed teams. They won the regular season pennant with a 67-43 record - five games better than the second-place Fort Wayne Daisies - and they claimed the postseason championship with a 3-1 series win over the Grand Rapid Chicks followed by a 4-1 series win over those same Daisies for their first AAGPBL title!

Little would return for the 1946 season, but she missed her family desperately throughout the season. Rockford struggled the year after winning their first title, finishing the season in fourth-place at 60-52. Little would see her record fall to 14-17 that season as her ERA ballooned to 2.51 as she only recorded 88 strikeouts compared to 131 walks. Her approach at the plate also suffered as she hit just .122 that season with just nine hits in 74 at-bats. She did have eight singles and a double while striking out just seven times, but it was clear that Little was distracted all season long. When George was discharged from his military service, Little called it quits and went home to Poplar Point to be with her family.

She went back to teaching before a second daughter, Frances, came along for George and Olive. They built the Sportsmans Inn Café in Poplar Point and worked there as it became an unofficial meeting spot for the townspeople. George also worked in the Public Trustee's Office with the Province of Manitoba while Olive got Bobbi and Frances into softball. George was also an avid softball player as he played on three World Championship Senior Softball teams while also being a member of the 1957 Poplar Point Memorial Hockey Team.

On The Ice

I'll be upfront on this: Olive Little never played hockey. She was a softball player from morning until night, but she never got into the game of hockey in any meaningful way. However, as shown above, there were a number of hockey-related moments in her life that need a little light shone on them!

We'll start with Regina's Johnny Gottselig, a two-time Stanley Cup-winning defenceman with the Chicago Black Hawks, who discovered Little for Philip K. Wrigley. Gottselig was born in modern-day Ukraine while it was still under Russian control, and he emigrated to Regina when he was a child. He took to hockey immediately, and would eventually play for his hometown Regina Pats.

Most notably, Gottselig played 16 seasons for the Black Hawks between 1928 and 1945, and he was the second player from the Russian Empire to have played in the NHL. He was also the second European-born captain of a Cup-winning team in the league's history when he captained the Black Hawks in 1938 to the Stanley Cup. He played in both the 1937 and 1939 NHL All-Star Games, and, in 590 NHL games, he recorded 176 goals and 195 assists while adding 13 goals and 13 assists in 43 playoff games. He ended up coaching the Black Hawks from 1944-48 before becoming their Director of Public Relations.

Gottselig was also busy in the off-season as he managed a few AAGPBL teams including the Racine Belles from 1943-44, the Peoria Red Wings in 1946-47, and the Kenosha Comets in 1949-51. He managed a number of women's basketball teams as well, and eventually became an executive at the Elmhurst Chicago Stone Company. Gottselig passed away at the age of 80 on May 15, 1986 in Chicago, and he was posthumously inducted into the Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame on September 29, 2018.

Still On The Ice

You may recall from the start of Olive's biography that she had two brothers. One of them, John Linthwaite Bend, played eight games with the New York Rangers in 1942-43 where he scored three goals and added one assist before he was sent off for military service at the age of 20. One has to wonder if his NHL career may have been longer based on those numbers, but Lin Bend is still recognized as one of Manitoba's best hockey players.

Bend was a fantastic player who could skate and score. He won the 1942 MJHL scoring title as member of the Portage Terriers while being named to the MJHL First All-Star Team. He's help the Terriers win the Turnbull Cup in 1942, and he's propel the Terriers to winning the 1942 Memorial Cup championship as well!

He returned to North American soil after a two-year deployment in the military, and it was like he never missed a game as he joined the USHL's St. Paul Saints for the 1945-46 season where he scored 18 goals and added 25 assists in 56 games. He joined the AHL's New Haven Ramblers the following season where he potted 18 goals and 17 assists in 64 games, but returned to the Saints in 1947 via a trade from the Rangers for cash. For the next three seasons, he would suit up for the Saints including the 1948-49 season where he scored 25 goals and 33 assists in 66 games as the Saints won Paul W. Loudon Championship! His final year of hockey would be played in Kansas City with the USHL's Royals, but struggled through injuries and poor play. At 28, Bend returned to Poplar Point, leaving pro hockey behind.

Bend would stay involved in the game, though, as he was a promoter of minor hockey in and around the Poplar Point area. In 1968, he moved to Winnipeg where he worked for the provincial ombudsman before he passed away at the age of 55 on April 6, 1978. Bend was added to the Manitoba Hockey Hall of Fame posthumously in 1993 as an Honoured Member.

Even More Ice

You may also recall Olive's dad, Jack Bend, who trained his daughter to be a pitching sensation. When he wasn't hitting her grounders and catching her pitches, Jack was a massive influence on the hockey world in Manitoba!

Bend was the mastermind behind the first enclosed rink in rural Manitoba when he built "The Rink" in 1949 in Poplar Point as a war memorial so young people could skate and meet there. The arena still stands today after it was designated a Manitoba Heritage Site on February 26, 2002, and it has since been renamed as the JP Bend Memorial Rink.

Outside of building rinks, the patriarch of the Bend family was an avid hockey fan as he coached or managed teams for five decades including the Portage Terriers that won the 1942 Turnbull Cup and Memorial Cup. He coached the Poplar Point Pilgrims, the 1920 Manitoba Intermediate champions. He coached his nephew, future NHL Hall of Famer Bryan Hextall, on the the Manitoba juvenile team that won the championship in 1929–30. He was the man in charge of the Poplar Point Memorials senior men's team, leading them to six consecutive Intermediate "B" titles from 1953-59 with the 1957 team also taking the Intermediate "A" championship as well as the the 1950 Manitoba Intermediate "B" Championship. Following the 1959 hockey season, Bend retired from coaching and managing teams.

It should be noted that Bend ran a general store and, later, a farm implements business at Poplar Point before retiring from that business in 1945. He sat for thirty years on the council of the Rural Municipality of Portage la Prairie, and ran in both the 1927 and 1932 provincial general elections as a member of the Conservative Party. Bend passed away on November 28, 1969, and he was posthumously inducted into the Manitoba Hockey Hall of Fame in 1987 as an Honoured Member.

The Accolades

As stated in her biography, Olive Little (née Bend) may have been one of the best pitchers Canada has ever produced in softball. During her three seasons in the AAGPBL, Little compiled a 57−43 record, a 2.23 ERA, and threw 381 strikeouts in 112 pitching appearances. She tossed four no-hitters in her professional career, was honoured with two "Olive Bend" nights by the Peaches, and she played in the 1943 AAGPBL All-Star Game at Wrigley Field.

Her fireballing ways on the mound earned Olive Little an induction into the Softball Canada Hall of Fame in 1983. The Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame welcomed her as an inductee in 1985, and Little was inducted posthumously into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in 1998 as a member of the 68 Canadian women who played in the AAGPBL. She was honoured as part of the AAGPBL addition to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1988, and, since 1998, the Manitoba Softball Association's top Senior Female Player is honoured annually with the Olive Little Memorial Award. She was selected in 2021 by the Nellie McClung Foundation as one of Manitoba's Women Trailblazers. It's pretty clear that Olive Little was one heckuva ball player who should be among Manitoba's most well-known players on any diamond.

Health complications slowed Olive Little down as she got older, but she loved to talk baseball with anyone who played or watched. She battled cancer at the age of 64, beating it by age 66. Three years later, she would pass away on February 2, 1987 at the age of 69. Her husband, George, passed away on June 3, 2010 at the age of 91.

From her days brushing opposing hitters back from the plate to throwing no-hitters to cheering for her dad, brother, and husband on the ice, Olive Little should be a name that Manitobans know and appreciate considering how good she was. While Little's the second AAGPBL player in this series and followed an incredible woman in Evelyn Wawryshyn Moroz, there are still a pile of incredible women who were incredible players in the AAGPBL while having a story on the ice. Little's story didn't involve much ice, but her discovery was made by a Chicago hockey star and her training came from two Manitoba hockey men who ensured she grew into an incredible ball player that would win an AAGPBL championship. That's good enough for me on this Sunday!

Rest in peace, Olive. Your incredible legacy in sports makes you a legend, even if those honours came long after you had retired.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!