HBIC Summer Project: A Hitter And A Stopper

HBIC has brought to you some amazing women who have done great things on the diamond as member of the AAGPBL, but the women discussed on this blog have significant ties to hockey in their lives based upon whether they played the game or were related to people who played. Impressive accolades and achievements were certainly reached on the diamond that have seen these women honoured for their baseball efforts, but these women were impressive athletes on a number of fronts. That latter statement will certainly apply to today's featured player as we take a look at the career of the woman to the left in Ruth Middleton who was not only a fearsome hitter in her time, but she was an impressive goaltender on the ice when the Great White North froze over in the winter! Let's take a look at the career of Ruth Middleton, a three-sport athlete who played hard on the diamond, on the ice, and on the court as we continue our look at hockey stars who played in the AAGPBL!

Middleton was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba on August 25, 1930, and it seemed she was destined for great things in the sports world. She had already shown good talent in softball locally by the age of the 13 when she was mentioned as one of the players who stood out in a game between the Wolseley Flyers and the Border AC squads. While she was far too young to make the jump to professional ball at her age, it wouldn't be the last time that Middleton's name would be seen in Winnipeg newspapers for her baseball skills or her two other sporting choices!

Three seasons later, Middleton was playing with the IPAC Intermediate Girls Fastball team, and they were storming the league as shown to the right, winning their 12th game in 14 contests by late July of 1946. Middleton was still doing what she did best in picking up hits for her team, and the IPAC team would string together seven-straight wins by mid-August to have them sitting atop the standings. Middleton was one of the league's best hitters to that point, registering multi-hit games in a number of contests for IPAC.

That IPAC team would continue their run in 1946 to the championship where they were victorious over St. James in the fifth and deciding game of the Intermediate Girls Fastball Final! As shown, Miss Middleton was in the back row as she played a key role in the victory!

Things changed in 1948 for Middleton as she joined the Senior Girls Softball League as one of four rookies that played for the St. Boniface Athletics. As stated in the Winnipeg Free Press snippet, Middleton was described as "one of the heavy hitters of the intermediate loop" where she certainly lived up to that billing. Would that injury noted affect her play in her rookie season with the Athletics?

Hint: it wouldn't. Middleton was in the starting lineup for Athletics manager Jimmy McKenzie when the season opening in May 1948. Middleton's escalation to the senior circuit saw her continue her attack on pitchers as she was one of the top hitters all season long with a flash of power for homeruns that could change momentum at any moment. The Athletics, using an explosive offence and solid defence, would climb the standings quickly in 1948 thanks, in part, to the addition of a rookie named Ruth Middleton. How far could they climb?

What if I told you the answer was "championship appearance"? The Athletics would knock the CUAC squad out in the semifinal to advance to the final where they would meet the St. Vital Tigerettes for all the marbles. It should be noted that both sides had four players voted as Senior Girls Softball League All-Stars, and one of those players who was voted in was none other than Athletics right-fielder Ruth Middleton. Middleton actually tied in her vote with Tigerettes right-fielder Audrey Freeman, so both players were named to the squad. In total, thanks to another tie in voting, there were 13 All-Stars named for the 1948 season with eight playing in the final!

Middleton was a force in the final, but the Tigerettes kept things close. In Game Five of the best-of-seven series, Middleton hammered a homerun early in the game before delivering the nail in the coffin with a single in the bottom of the tenth inning to drive in the winning run to give the Athletics a 5-4 win and a 3-2 series lead.

Game Six saw the Tigerettes make five errors in the first three innings to allow the Athletics to post an 11-0 lead that would remain intact throughout the game with the final score of 11-7 earning the Athletics the championship! Middleton had a triple in the victory on September 15, 1948 as she and her teammates earned the softball crown in Winnipeg for at least one year!

There were some fantastic developments over the winter with which Ruth Middleton was involved, but we'll see those below. We'll jump to the 1949 softball season that saw Middleton return to the Athletics for the campaign. They'd fall to the Tigerettes in the season opener in 1949 by a 9-3 score, but Middleton was still a dangerous threat at the plate as she went 2-for-4 on opening night.

By mid-June, the Athletics were in third-place at 3-4 while those Tigerettes were clipping along at 7-0. By the end of June, the Athletics had dropped five more games to sit in fourth-place of the four teams at 3-9. Middleton was second in runs scored by this point in the season, but she was one of the lone bright spots for a St. Boniface team that was fading from championship chatter. Middleton and her teammates delivered a solid blow to another team's playoff hopes on August 2, 1949 when she crushed a homerun in the seventh inning to help the Athletics win 10-1 over CUAC, putting the Ramblers' postseason in jeopardy. However, CUAC had revenge just ten days later with an 8-4 win and a Game One victory over St. Boniface in their semifinal series, making their playoff dreams of a repeat championship a little less likely. Game Two followed the same script as CUAC won 8-4 again to take a 2-0 lead in the best-of-five series. Unfortunately, a Game Three loss by a 6-5 score would end the season for the Athletics.

Word of Middleton's successes at the plate and in the field had the AAGPBL taking notice as she and CUAC player Doris Shero were invited to the AAGPBL tryouts in South Bend, Indiana in May of 1950! Would we see Middleton in the lineup of one of the AAGPBL teams for the 1950 season? It seemed likely with her talents!

The Chicago Colleens would draft Middleton to join them for the 1950 season. The Colleens weren't exactly a full-fledged member of the AAGPBL at that time, but one of two "Rookie Travelling Teams which played exhibition games against each other as they travelled through the South and East during the 1949 and 1950 seasons." As such, the Colleens didn't really have a record to boast, but Middleton played for the Colleens on that tour wearing #3. She hit fairly well as a rookie with 64 hits in 281 at-bats which included six doubles and nine triples, resulting in a .228 average. She recorded 46 walks, 17 stolen bases, 49 runs, and 33 RBIs while striking out just 25 times. While those stats wouldn't put her in the running for any AAGPBL awards, they were good enough for the rest of the league to keep an eye on Middleton's work with the Colleens!

In 1951, Middleton joined the Battle Creek Belles for training camp and wore #14, but apparently didn't make the cut. For a team who struggled the entire season, you'd think they would have wanted a good bat in the lineup, right? For what it's worth, the Belles posted a 30-80 record with the first-half of the season showing an 11-45 count compared to the 19-35 second-half of the season. The Belles finished the first half in last-place of the eight-team league, but did improve to sixth-place in the second half. Battle Creek did not advance to the playoffs. Middleton, however, returned north of the border in the summer of 1951 as it appears she returned to the Winnipeg Senior Girls Softball League to play with the CUAC Blues!

1952 saw Middleton head back to the Belles as they looked to improve in the standings. The league was only six teams deep in 1952, but the Belles finished at the bottom of the pile with a 43-67 record. Middleton wore #12 in her first official season with the Belles, but it was clear that the entire team struggled based on the individual player statistics. Middleton hit just .138 for the season as she went 22-for-160 with just three doubles. She added 24 walks, six stolen bases, ten RBIs, and 16 runs against 32 strikeouts, but it was clear the Belles were not going to make the postseason once more.

In 1953, the Belles would move to Muskegon and Middleton was back in the outfield, but she would play considerably less games than she had in the previous season. The Belles didn't improve in 1953 as they went 38-67 that year, and Middleton's reduced work load in the field saw her numbers dip slightly. She hit .128 for the year on the strength of a 9-for-72 clip which were all singles. She walked seven times, stole two bases, scored nine runs, and added a pair of RBIs against nine strikeouts. The Belles would miss the postseason once again, and Middleton made the choice not to return for the 1954 season.

That would be the last time that Middleton made any news on the diamond as she went back to her job as a stenographer with the Local 254 Journeyman Plumbers and Steamfitters of America. She'd find better work that winter as she took a position as a bookkeeper with the Yoder Ford car dealership in Garrett, Indiana - a position she'd hold for the next 42 years! Ruth also married a gentleman by the name of Gerald "Jerry" Gentry on October 13, 1972 before he passed away August 1, 1973. Ruth Gentry, at the age of 77, passed away unfortunately passed away May 13, 2008 at her residence in Hamilton, Indiana.

On The Ice

It's hard to argue that Ruth Middleton wasn't an important figure on the diamond, but one might be able to throw a few discussions into the mix about how important she was to hockey as well. It would seem that Winnipeg's women's hockey scene was dormant for a decade until December 23, 1948 when the Carruthers Roughriders met the Weston Wolverines in a game with all the bells and whistles, and starring in the net for the Roughriders was Ruth Middleton!

By January 29, 1949, the "Ruff-Riders" were the toast of the league thanks to the puck-stopping abilities of Miss Middleton. She posted her second-consecutive shutout over the Norwood Torches at that time, and the Carruthers crew had yet to suffer a loss on the season. It would seem that the Carruthers team was built on the idea of solid netminder and defence, and it was certainly paying off in the early going of this new Winnipeg women's hockey circuit!

Three days later, the Norwood Torches got torched again by the Ruff-Riders by a 4-0 score as Middleton picked up her third-consecutive shutout. As the Winnipeg Free Press article mentions, Evelyn Wawryshyn was a star for the Doodlebugs as noted in her biography!

It shouldn't come as a surprise that the Ruff-Riders and Doodlebugs met in the Girls Hockey League Final. The Doodlebugs were paced by a solid offence that could score virtually at will while the Ruff-Riders were a solid defensive squad who scored timely goals. Game One was played on Tuesday, March 1, 1949 at Olympic Rink on the corner of Charles Street and Church Avenue where the current Olympic Towers apartment buildings sit. The old Olympic Rink was saw Evelyn Wawryshyn score a late goal for a 3-2 win to put the Doodlebugs up 1-0 in the best-of-five series over the Ruff-Riders, but the writer of the article to the left noted that both goalkeepers were "spectacular" on that Tuesday evening.

It was another close game on Thursday night between the Doodlebugs and the Ruff-Riders, but the same player who ended the game on Tuesday struck again on Thursday. Evelyn Wawryshyn was the lone goal scorer on March 3, 1949 when she found room behind Middleton in leading the Doodlebugs to the 1-0 win and, more importantly, the 2-0 lead in the best-of-five series against the Ruff-Riders. The Carruthers squad would need a big effort to win three in a row against the Doodlebugs, but they had the talent to do so, specifically in the crease, if they were going to make things interesting! We'd find out in Game Three on March 10!

It wasn't to be on that night for the Ruff-Riders, though, as Wawryshyn was on a different level altogether. She assisted on the first goal for the Doodlebugs before scoring three-straight markers to pace the Doodlebugs to the 3-1 victory and the Winnipeg Senior Girls Hockey League. Middleton wasn't done there as the Winnipeg all-star team was selected, and she was named as the goaltender for that squad who would face-off against a Saskatchewan all-star squad for what the Winnnipeg Free Press called the "unofficial Canadian championship". I'm not sure who would represent Saskatchewan, but having Middleton and Wawryshyn in the Winnipeg lineup would mean the Saskatchewan team would have to be good if they hoped to capture the championship!

For whatever reason, I cannot find a single article about the meeting of the Winnipeg all-stars and the Saskatchewan all-stars in 1949. I don't know if there was even a series played as there are no articles mentioning any of the games past March 11, 1949 until the start of the following season. If there was a series that you know about, please link that to me in the comments!

As the 1949-50 hockey season was being planned, an interesting tidbit in The Winnipeg Tribune was published on October 19, 1949 that indicated that Ruth Middleton hadn't decided on whether she was returning after the two sports she played in the winter - basketball and hockey - demanded a lot of her time. For the Ruff-Riders, that would be catastrophic news with how good Middleton was between the pipes for them, but they were hoping she'd return. What was known is that the "Greater Winnipeg Girls Community Hockey League" had expanded to five teams with the Elmwood Winter Club joining, and they were looking for a six team to join for the '49-50 season as well. Growth in women's hockey at the start of 1950? It's amazing to see what little progress there's been since that time!

It should be noted that Middleton did return, but there was a jersey notation in The Winnipeg Tribune that caught my eye. As stated in the "Ice Chips" section of one of the articles, the WHL's Brandon Wheat Kings donated their jerseys to the Weston Wolverines for them to wear during games while the Montreal Canadiens donated their jerseys to the Carruthers Ruff-Riders for them to wear! I'm not one to celebrate hand-me-down jerseys when it comes to women's hockey as I truly believe the women deserve their own identity, but having these two franchises contribute to women's hockey in Winnipeg they way they did is fairly impressive! They didn't have to, but the fact that the Wheat Kings and Canadiens were well-represented in Winnipeg is pretty cool. And take note of those Habs jerseys - they'll come back into play in a second!

The newly-named Carruthers Canadienettes were atop the standings on December 28, 1949 with a 3-1-0 record, having scored 13 goals and surrendering just three tallies. They had played two more games than the Doodlebugs to that point, but it should be noted that Ruth Middleton was third in league scoring with a goal and three helpers, one point back of Evelyn Wawryshyn. Yes, it seems the goaltender who was so impressive the year prior was now taking regular shifts as a skater when she wasn't stopping pucks! How impressive is that?

As we know, Middleton was named as the goaltender for the Winnipeg All-Stars who met the Moose Jaw Wildcats in February 1950 for the Western Canada girls' championship. They'd prevail over Moose Jaw in the three-game series in two games, and the squad posed for a picture. Remember those Montreal jerseys? The All-Stars wore them!

It should be noted that the All-Stars would down Port Arthur in the Dominion Championship to capture the 1950 Lady Bessborough Trophy as champions of the Dominion Women's Amateur Hockey Association, but Middleton reportedly had to miss that series. In Wawryshyn's write-up, I had reported that Middleton missed the Port Arthur series as she "left prior to the championship series in mid-April for the American Glamour Softball League's training camp", and that could be due to the fact that she was invited to the AAGPBL tryouts in South Bend, Indiana in May of 1950! In any case, Middleton's Canadienettes would fall to the Doodlebugs in the semi-final in 1950, ending their season.

After that 1949-50 season, it seems that Ruth Middleton stuck to basketball only as she wasn't mentioned in any further season of the Greater Winnipeg Girls Community Hockey League. While she did win a basketball championship in 1951, it seems her hockey career ended as abruptly as her baseball career did which, to me, is strange considering she was so good at both sports. Nevertheless, Ruth Middleton was part of the revival of women's hockey in Winnipeg and was the backstopper for a Western Canada championship!

The Accolades

As stated above, Middleton was a key part of a Winnipeg Senior Girls softball championship with the St. Boniface Athletics while being named as an all-star in the league. She played three seasons in the AAGPBL where she had decent numbers, but her time ended fairly aburptly. On June 4, 1998, she, along with 68 other Canadian players who suited up in the AAGPBL, were inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame while the AAGPBL was honoured by Baseball's Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York in 1988. She would be inducted into the Manitoba Baseball Hall of Fame in 1998, and she was added to the Manitoba Softball Hall of Fame in 2011.

Her hockey legacy was shorter, but being part of the revival of a senior women's league in Winnipeg in 1948 is nothing short of amazing, and her contributions in helping Winnipeg secure the Lady Bessborough Trophy as champions of the Dominion Women's Amateur Hockey Association makes her a star on the ice as well! She hasn't been recognized for those accomplishments formally, but HBIC is proud to do that here and now!

She was a heckuva ball player and her skills on the ice were nothing short of spectacular, and that's why she's being highlighted for the HBIC Summer Project. Unfortunately, Ruth Middleton Gentry died in Indiana on May 13, 2008, at age 77. Prior to her death, she earned membership in the Hamilton Fish & Game Club where she also served as the club's treasurer for over 30 years. She was also a member of the Canadian Legion during her later days. It seems pretty clear to me that Middleton's inclusion in this list had to be done based on all she accomplished.

Rest in peace, Ruth. 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!