Phyllis C. Koehn [?Sugar?] was a pitcher and utility who played from 1943 through 1950 for six different teams of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. Listed at 5' 5", 120 lb., Koehn batted and threw right-handed. She was born in Madison, Wisconsin. By the fall of 1942, World War II had caused many Minor league baseball teams to disband. Young men were being drafted into the armed services, and many feared the worst for Major League Baseball. Philip K. Wrigley, who was in charge both of the Wrigley Company and the Chicago Cubs National League club, searched for a possible solution to this dilemma. The answer was to establish a women's professional baseball league as a promotional sideline to maintain the public interest in baseball. Since the only organized ball for women in the country was softball, the league created a hybrid game which included both softball and baseball. Wrigley had scouts all over the United States, Canada and even Cuba signing players for tryouts. About 500 girls attended the call. Of these, only 280 were invited to the final try-outs in Chicago, where 60 of them were chosen to become the first women to ever play professional baseball. 

September 15th, 1922 in Madison  /  Died:   May 28th, 2007