During the Webster Athletic Hall of Fame induction, Susan Perabo was awarded the Athletics Pioneer Award. Perabo was the first woman to play on a baseball team in NCAA history.
She was a second baseman during her career at Webster University from 1987 to 1989. The Baseball Hall of Fame has a plaque commemorating Perabo in its “Women in Baseball” exhibit.
“When I came to Webster, the athletic program was in its infancy,” Perabo said. “There was no softball program, so I decided to go out for the baseball team. I had no idea when I played that I was the first woman to play NCAA baseball. I actually didn’t find that out until a few years later.”
Perabo said that she was treated well by teammates, opposing players and fans.
“My teammates were terrific,” Perabo said. “They were a bunch of great guys who just wanted to play baseball, and once they realized that was all I wanted to do, they were fine with me.”
Baseball has always been part of Perabo’s life from a young age. She still considers herself a baseball fan and sometimes coaches Little League.
“My hero as a kid was Lou Gehrig,” Perabo said. “That said, I was completely devoted to the Cardinals and loved them all.”
Perabo is now an Associate Professor of English at Dickinson College in Carlisle, PA. She has also wrote and published the book Who I Was Supposed to Be, which won Book of the Year awards in the Los Angeles Times, Miami Herald, and St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
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