Timeline of women's sports in the United States and fitness and creating an educated public that supports gender equity in sport." The first women's professional football league (WPFL) kicks off its inaugural season with seven teams. 1974 - The first women's professional football league in America (WPFL) kicked off its inaugural season with seven teams. 1974 - Lanny Moss was the first woman to manage a professional men's baseball team. She was hired by the minor league Portland Mavericks. 1976 - In the first Women's Professional Softball World Series Championship the Connecticut Falcons came out on top. 1977 - Janet Guthrie was the first woman to compete in
Knuckleball knuckleballs is known as a knuckleballer. The origins of the knuckleball are unclear. Toad Ramsey of the Louisville Colonels in the old American Association—his pitch likely resembled the knuckle curve—and Eddie Cicotte of the major leagues' Chicago White Sox, who in 1908, was nicknamed "Knuckles", are two possible creators of the pitch. Other accounts attribute the pitch's creation to Charles H. Druery, a pitcher for the Blue Ridge League. In 1917, Druery taught the pitch to Eddie Rommel who became successful with the knuckleball for the Philadelphia Athletics. As used by Cicotte, the knuckleball was originally thrown by holding the