HBIC Summer Project: A Regina Peach

While the first three entries in the HBIC Summer Project looked at three stars on the diamond from Manitoba, today we're heading west to discover a woman from Regina, Saskatchewan who had all sorts of ties to the hockey world despite never lacing up the hockey skates for a game on her own. While she was an incredible all-around athlete while growing up in Regina, Mildred "Millie" Warwick stood out in sports like track and field, softball, basketball, gymnastics, volleyball, and speed skating. It would be her glove and bat that got her notoriety, though, as the diminutive infielder was a star with the Rockford Peaches in the AAGPBL. Today, we meet Mildred Warwick and discover her tie to hockey on HBIC as we continue our look at the women of the AAGPBL!

What makes Warwick's story unique is that her career in the AAGPBL was short - she only played two seasons! We'll look at each of those seasons below, but Warwick's story was one that I couldn't pass up thanks to her connections to hockey through family and marriage. While she certainly made a name for herself on the diamond that will never be overlooked, it's a little crazy to see how hockey relates back to her. Let's get into meeting Mildred Warwick and find out how everything ties together!

Mildred Marion Warwick was born on October 18, 1922 to William and Caroline Warwick, and into a household that would feature ten children. Her parents were living in Quebec before heading west after World War I where they settled in Regina, Saskatchewan, but things didn't always go well as the family moved four times in five years after living on the prairies as William navigated jobs through the Great Depression. Their brood of children would soon include five girls - Embyl, Isma, Jean, Mildred, and Wilda - and five boys - Archie, Grant, Claude, Billy, and Dick - would find themselves playing every sport imaginable to keep themselves out of trouble during their days.

In the summer, baseball was their sport of choice and Mildred would often accompany them to the local ball diamond where she played on the infield. In the winter, the boys wpould trudge through the snow across the street to a field that would flood where they'd play as long the light allowed them. There wasn't much money to go around on the dusty and cold prairies, but the Warwick kids always had warm meals to eat and warm clothes to wear thanks to two hard-working parents that were determined to give their kids a better life.

It was on the local diamond where Mildred began to hone her skills, and she could swing the bat with the best of the Warwick kids. As such, she was a strong player when she took up fastpitch softball in school at age 12 while attending Balfour Collegiate. According to the North Central Regina History Project, Mildred was a star in school sports, noting that "[a]t every inter-school track and field meet of her high school career, she placed first in the softball throw, with a record-breaking performance in 1940 that got her voted the meet's most outstanding athlete."

With an arm like hers, Millie wound up playing at the highest levels in Sasaktchewan by the time she turned 16 as she joined the Regina Army and Navy Bombers in 1938. Playing second base, she had an excellent glove and an accurate throw while she hit for average with the bat, using her speed to leg out extra-base hits. Millie's skills were part of two consecutive Saskatchewan Ladies Softball Championships in 1940 and 1941, and she was named MVP in the 1941 championship as well. It would be the summer of 1942 where regional scouts for Philip K. Wrigley took notice of Warwick's skills, and an offer of $85/week was made to the 5'2" infielder to join the AAGPBL!

Her acceptance of the offer made by Wrigley meant she was heading for Chicago in 1943 for the inaugural AAGPBL tryouts as teams needed to fill out rosters. As players were sent home, Warwick's abilities kept her playing and she'd finally survive the final cuts to earn a roster spot with the Rockford Peaches in 1943! While she may have been a star in Saskatchewan, finding herself as a Peach meant that Warwick was going to have to show all her skills on the diamond if she wanted to make an impact in the new women's professional baseball league.

In 1943, the Peaches took the field with Warwick playing third base and wearing #7. From that day forward, she officially was one of the league's top hitters when it came to making contact and getting on base as Warwick played in 92 games that season, recording 354 at-bats. Her efforts saw her pick up 93 hits which included five doubles, seven triples, and a homerun, and she finished the season hitting .263 with 30 RBIs. She walked 19 times, stole 34 bases, and scored 62 times for the Peaches while only striking out seven times!

Warwick's 1943 season started off at Beyer Stadium with a bang as she was tied for the league-lead in triples through the first 30 games with five by June 29, 1943. A week later, she was leading the AAGPBL with 54 hits and six triples while batting .331. By July 21, 1943, Warwick was making a name for herself both as a Rockford Peach and as a Canadian player in the All-American Professional Softball Glamour League, as it was called in 1943, by hitting .319 over the first two months of the season. Warwick was locked in and hitting at an incredible pace that only a handful of AAGPBL players could match!

Knowing that the Peaches had the makings of one of the best infields in the game with the likes of Warwick at third, Gladys Davis playing in the middle infield at both positions, and Dorothy Kamenshek at first base, it's hard to fathom that the Peaches ended the first season in the AAGPBL at 48-54, finishing at the bottom of the standings in both halves of the season. To her credit, though, Warwick was named an AAGPBL All-Star in 1943 as she played under the lights at Wrigley Field alongside teammate Olive Little for the Illinois-Indiana team!

Perhaps what might be the coolest thing about Warwick's 1943 season is that she established a record that only one other player in the AAGPBL ever matched. On June 20, 1943, Warwick began a hitting streak that saw her reach base safely in 13-straight games from June 20 through June 27, 1943! If you're doing the math, that's one week of double-headers that were played by the Peaches, and she reached base via a hit in all of them except the final game on June 27. The only other woman to accomplish a hitting streak that long was Elizabeth Mahon of South Bend Blue Sox who did it two years after Warwick did. Her efforts in the 1943 season earned her MVP honours among her teammates as well! How's that for a first season?

Warwick would return to the Peaches for the 1944 season in the AAGPBL, but she'd see her average fall as she hit just .208, but she managed to drive in 37 runs. She still put up 71 hits in 342 plate appearances over 97 games, recording four doubles, two triples and a homerun in those 71 hits. She was an absolute terror on the base paths as she stole 69 bases in 1944 to go along with 35 walks and 45 runs scores with only 17 strikeouts to her name. With two additional teams in the league from the four in 1943, there were more good arms to throw strikes and keep hitters at bay, but Warwick still managed to put up very good numbers.

Rockford struggled in the first-half of the 1944 season, going just 24-32 to finish in fifth-place. The second half saw them finish above .500 as they closed out the 1944 summer with a 29-28 mark, but their overall 53-60 record wasn't good enough to get them into the playoffs. It would seem that Warwick would have to seek her first AAGPBL championship in 1945, but things changed as that summer progressed as Mildred Warwick became Mildred Warwick-McAuley as she married her boyfriend and moved to Edmonton with him where she decided that she was happier being home with her family as she retired from the AAGPBL at the conclusion of the 1944 season.

Her softball days didn't end there, though, as she and Ken established the Edmonton Mortons softball team where she starred at third base from 1945-47. Following the 1947 summer, the McAuleys moved to Saskatoon where Mildred Grey joined the Cab Ramblers ladies' softball team for their 1948 season and helped them to a Saskatchewan Ladies Softball Championship in 1948 - the third of her career! Her work on the diamond in Canada had all sorts of accolades attached to it!

And if that wasn't enough, the McAuleys returned to Edmonton for the 1949 summer where she rejoined the Mortons, and they built a powerhouse team over the next few years. In 1951, the Mortons posted a 34-1 record while winning the B.C.-Alberta Inter-Provincial Championship and the Western Canadian Championship that allowed the team to advance to the Canadian National Championship at the Canadian National Exhibition against the heavily-favoured Toronto Ace Queens as the rules were played under the eastern Canadian rules of softball which saw base paths that were five-feet shorter and an increased pitching distance compared to the western Canadian rules. It mattered not to the Mortons as they defeated Toronto to become the first-ever official Canadian Senior Women's Softball Champions in 1951!

Her playing days would end there, however, as Mildred and Ken welcomed their first son, Ken Jr., in 1952 before adding a second baby boy, Todd, to the family. While she wasn't fielding grounders and hitting singles on a rope, she was an advocate for women's rights and women's sports when it came to seeing women get the same opportunities as men. She and Ken were married for nearly 47 years before Ken's passing on June 18, 1992 at the age of 71 in Edmonton.

While Millie would pass at the age of 84 on December 9, 2006, it should be noted she was one of two Rockford Peaches that had been asked to be ambassadors for the first World Cup of Women's Baseball held in Edmonton. She attended the event to fulfill her role as ambassador as the US won the event after posting a 5-1 record. Canada, it should be mentioned, finished in third-place after falling to Japan in the semifinals before defeating Australia in the bronze-medal game.

On The Ice

As stated off the top of this article, Mildred Warwick wasn't a hockey player. She did compete in speed skating events, but she never once grabbed a stick nor shot a puck in any meaningful competition. However, her life was certainly surrounded by hockey and affected by hockey, so let's take a look at what hockey played a role in her life.

We'll start with Millie's brother, Grant "Knobby" Warwick, who spent nine seasons in the NHL as a member of the New York Rangers, Boston Bruins, and Montreal Canadiens. Warwick was a tough winger who starred with the Regina Abbots in the Southern Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League where his mix of skating, scoring and toughness was the kind of recipe scouts were seeking when it came to finding future NHL players. While the Abbots fell in the 1940 Memorial Cup, the Regina Rangers of the Southern Saskatchewan Hockey League liked his moxie as they signed Warwick to join their team in 1940-41 where he helped them win the 1941 Allan Cup! As stated, NHL scouts liked what they saw, and that was all the New York Rangers needed to see as they invited Warwick to camp for the 1941-42 NHL season!

Warwick made an impact immediately upon arriving in Manhattan as he was named the 1942 NHL Rookie of the Year after scoring 16 goals and 17 assists in 44 games with the Blueshirts. He'd hit a high of 20 goals twice with the Rangers in 1944-45 and 1946-47, and he was selected by the NHL to play in the 1947 NHL All-Star Game. However, he'd be traded by the Rangers to the Boston Bruins on February 6, 1948 for Billy Taylor, and he'd find success as a Bruins winger by scoring 22 goals and 37 points in 1948-49. In the fall of 1949, the Bruins would ship Warwick to the Montreal Canadiens for cash, and a broken nose would see him miss time with the Canadiens who then demoted him to the AHL's Buffalo Bisons for what appeared to be a reconditioning stint. Buffalo was a fairly good team, and it seemed that Warwick would get his shot after being a reliable goal scorer for both the Rangers and Bruins.

Three seasons with the Bisons from 1949-52 was enough for Warwick to become discouraged with professional hockey after he received no other call-ups despite scoring 77 goals and 211 points in 157 AHL games over those three seasons. Warwick would eventually land with the Okanagan Senior Amateur Hockey League's Penticton Vees where he, along with his two brothers, made the Vees virtually unbeatable. He was named as an OSAHL First Team All-Star four times in four seasons, and he helped the Vees win the 1954 Allan Cup!

Thanks to that victory, the Vees were named as Canada's representative at the World Ice Hockey Championship that took place in the four cities of Düsseldorf, Dortmund, Krefeld, and Cologne, West Germany. Working as the team's player-coach, Grant Warwick guided the Vees to the final against the Soviet Union where they took down the defending champions by a 5-0 score to earn the gold medal!

Warwick would spend one more season with Penticton before joining the Trail Smoke Eaters for one campaign. He'd finish his career back in the OSAHL with the Kamloops Chiefs before retiring at the conclusion of the 1958 season. Grant was inducted into the Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame in 1986 after scoring 147 goals and 142 assists in 395 NHL games. He was also added an an honourary inductee into the Regina Sports Hall of Fame in 2004.

It seems pretty clear that Grant Warwick had a big stake in the hockey side of Millie Warwick's life, but it took on a bigger role for one reason: Ken McAuley.

Still On The Ice

Ken McAuley also played as a goaltender in 1941-42 with the Regina Rangers of the Southern Saskatchewan Hockey League. He didn't log many minutes with the Rangers, but the New York Rangers came calling after the American draft pulled a number of hockey players off the ice and into World War II. With the Rangers needing a goaltender, McAuley was in a Rangers uniform as the starting netminder for the 1943-44 season!

McAuley likely shouldn't have been there based on his 17–64–15 record over two seasons that saw him sport a 5.61 GAA in 96 games. That's not to say he couldn't make stops at the NHL level, but there were simply far too many shots that got past him and into the back of the net. He still holds the record for the worst GAA of any starting goaltender in NHL history as he surrendered 310 goals in 1943-44 for a GAA of 6.24. No matter the reasons for him being in Manhattan, he had an ally in another former Regina Ranger who sat down from him in the New York dressing room, and that player was some kid named Grant Warwick.

Warwick introduced McAuley to his sister through photos, and McAuley was instantly drawn to her. As we know, McAuley not only dated Mildred Warwick, but eventually married her in 1945 as the two moved to Edmonton. That would end McAuley's run in the NHL, but he joined the Western Canadian Senior Hockey League's Edmonton Oil Kings for two seasons before the couple moved to Saskatoon where he guarded the nets for the WCSHL's Saskatoon Quakers for two seasons as well.

Upon moving back to Edmonton with Millie, Ken hung up the skates and coached the Oil Kings for four more seasons where he compiled a 156-113-4 record as the head coach, leading them to a Memorial Cup Final in 1954. Among his other efforts, he was President and Co-founder of the Edmonton Oldtimers Hockey League into the late 1980s, organized the first charity golf tournament in Alberta, and was President of the North Edmonton Community League and the Edmonton District Fastball Association. Ken McAuley was inducted into the Alberta Amateur Fastball Hall of Fame in 1988 for his coaching and founding of the Edmonton Mortons. He was also inducted into the Edmonton Sports Hall of Fame in 1975, and was inducted into the Alberta Sports Hall of Fame and Museum in 2005.

Even More Ice

The 1940s saw another Warwick lad make the NHL as younger brother Billy "The Dapper Yapper" Warwick played 14 NHL games for the New York Rangers alongside his brother, Grant, from 1942-44. The majority of Billy Warwick's time in New York was spent with the Eastern Hockey League's New York Rovers, but Billy did score two goals and three assists while playing 12 games with the Rangers in 1943-44. As stated, though, his scoring was far better in the EHL where he was a star with the Rovers. While Grant's path through hockey took him to a handful of cities across North America, Billy certainly saw more of the continent, including stops in Canada, thanks to the movement he experienced in his career as a professional hockey player.

Billy found himself as a member of the Rovers in 1944-45 before joining the Philadelphia Falcons for nine games before landing in the AHL with the Hershey Bears while helping the Bears finish as AHL Calder Cup Finalists after losing a 4-2 decision to the Cleveland Barons in the final. In 1946, he'd be on the move as he was shipped to the Providence Reds. In 1947, he would be moved to a rather brutal Philadelphia Rockets team. 1948 and 1949 would see him in the USHL with the Fort Worth Rangers while logging 17 total games with the AHL's Springfield Indians. 1950 saw him play most of the season with the USHL's Minneapolis Millers while getting a handful of games in with the Cleveland Barons. In 1951, Warwick would take his talents to the USHL's Denver Falcons before landing in the Quebec Senior Hockey League in 1952 with the Ottawa Senators. If you're counting, that's eleven teams in eight years as Billy Warwick seemingly lived out of a suitcase!

Like Grant, he'd play one season in the Maritime Major Hockey League with Halifax before reuniting with Grant in Penticton where the Warwick brothers turned the Vees into a machine in the OSAHL. Billy was part of the 1954 Allan Cup team that allowed the Vees to play in the World Championship, and he's officially a gold medalist at the 1955 World Ice Hockey Championship after scoring two goals in the final to help Canada defeat the Soviets 5-0 in the gold-medal final where he was named as the tournament's best forward after scoring 14 goals and seven assists! As noted in the flyer above, Billy also broke the OSAHL scoring record in 1954-55 with 95 points, so it seems the New York Rangers missed out on a second prolific scorer with the last name of Warwick. In any case, Penticton benefitted from having two Warwicks in the lineup, but they weren't the only Warwicks skating for the Vees.

Billy Warwick joined Grant on the Trail Smoke Eaters in 1956-57 after one more season with Penticton. Billy would retire from playing, but briefly returned to hockey when he stepped in as head coach mid-season for the Alberta Senior Hockey League's Edmonton Oil Kings. It should be noted that Billy Warwick served as a colour commentator on Oil Kings, Oilers, and other sports broadcasts as he was found in pressboxes across the city for 50 years. He was also the man responsible for "Billy's Guide", an entertainment and restaurant magazine, published in Edmonton. William "Billy" Warwick was inducted into the Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame in 1986, and into the Regina Sports Hall of Fame in 2004.

Ice, Ice, Baby?

As alluded to in the section above, there was one more Warwick who played hockey, but never went to the NHL. The youngest of the Warwick kids, Richard, played in the minor leagues all his life as he moved from the Brandon Elks, Humboldt Indians, Medicine Hat Tigers, New West Royals, Tacoma Rockets, and the Nanaimo Clippers before becoming the first Warwick brother to join the brand-new Penticton Vees team in the OSAHL in 1951. It was in Penticton that Dick Warwick became a hockey legend as he scored a number of memorable goals for the club.

After recruiting his two brothers who had suited up in the NHL, Dick, Grant, and Billy formed the squad's top line and they dominated throughout the OSAHL. Centering his two brothers, Dick Warwick used pinpoint passing and his phenomenal athleticism to make plays for his bigger wingers. The end result was a Vees team that simply got better and better each year, culminating with the World Championship victory over the Soviets in 1955. His size was always seen as a reason he wouldn't go further in hockey as he was smaller than both Grant and Billy, but Dick earned team MVP honours with both the Indians and the Tigers before landing in Penticton. Again, hockey in that era seems to have underestimated another Warwick brother's ability to score points.

"He was just a solid, quiet guy who was dedicated to winning," former Vees teammate Ivan McLelland told David Crompton of the Penticton Herald in 2015. "He didn't participate in all the hijinks that went on, but he loved being part of the team. He was there at the beginning and he was there at the end, proudly standing on the blueline in Krefeld with his teammates and his brothers when we won that championship."

Just as his brothers did, Dick Warwick would play one more season in Penticton after winning the World Championship gold medal before moving to the Trail Smoke Eaters in 1956-57. He'd retire after that season in Trail, moving to Edmonton to work with his brothers in the restaurant business. It should be noted that the 1954-55 Penticton Vees were added to the BC Sports Hall of Fame in 1976 while Dick Warwick was inducted into the Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame in 1986, and into the Regina Sports Hall of Fame in 2004.

Just Add Ice

If you were interesting in seeing the Warwick boys in action, Youtube user "kroghie" posted the video of the 1955 World Ice Hockey Championship on the website as Canada, represented by the Penticton Vees, played the Soviet Union in the gold medal final.

The Accolades

Clearly, the Warwick family was a pretty important cog in amateur and professional sports in this country, and I didn't even mention Claude Warwick's impressive prowess in the boxing ring. We have two brothers who played in the NHL, three brothers who won an Allan Cup and a World Ice Hockey Championship, and a sister who won multiple softball championships in two provinces before becoming an all-star at third base in the AAGPBL while setting a hitting record that only one other player matched. These kids were athletes, and their accomplishments shouldn't be overlooked by any means.

Mildred Warwick retired from playing softball with the arrival of her kids, and she worked at the Department of Energy during 27 years, retiring in 1988. After losing her husband, Ken McAuley, in 1992, she neve re-married, living out her days in Edmonton until her passing at the age of 84 on December 9, 2006. Millie Warwick was inducted into the Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame in 1986, the Alberta Softball Hall of Fame in 1989, Alberta Baseball Hall of Fame in 1991, the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in 1998 as part of the AAGPBL induction, the Regina Sports Hall of Fame in 2004, and is part of the "Diamond Dreams" exhibit at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York in 1988.

While Mildred Warwick only spent two seasons in the AAGPBL, she was a fearless hitter who set records with her bat while stealing bases whenever she could after reaching base. She didn't have much need for hockey with her softball skills, but it was hockey where she found her husband thanks to her brother Grant who, along with siblings Billy and Dick, accomplished more in hockey than most players ever will. Her 164 hits in 696 at-bats was good for a .236 batting average, and she was an AAGPBL all-star in 1943 after setting the league record for the longest hitting streak.

Mildred McAuley is now the fourth AAGPBL player in this series and the first to be featured from a province other than Manitoba, but we're not close to being done yet. There are still a pile of incredible women who were incredible players in the AAGPBL while having ties to hockey. McAuley's story didn't involve her standing on the ice, but Grant Warwick introduced her to her NHL-playing husband while three brothers won gold medals at the 1955 World Ice Hockey Championship. That's certainly enough ties to the ice for this Sunday!

Rest in peace, Millie. 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!