Horsey the Nun

Catherine Horstman was born in Minster, Ohio on April 14, 1935. Minster is a farming community with a strong German and Catholic background. Her parents and their family were no exception and she spoke only German until the first grade. She was nicknamed Katie by her family and was raised with seven siblings. Katie's family had cows and chickens on their farm. As a farm girl in a small town in those days, there were no organized sports for girls. Like most other girls her age, she learned how to play baseball in the pastures with her five brothers. A friend of the family from Fort Wayne, Indiana knew of tryouts for something new. Philip Wrigley was starting a professional women's league, calling it the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL). At the end of her sophomore year of high school, 16-year-old Katie went to the tryouts in Fort Wayne. It was a tough competition, with hundreds of girls trying for the same positions. Katie was selected and then escorted home by a chaperone to get permission from her parents to join the team. Her mother gave consent with one condition: "She must go to church every Sunday or she must come home." She would miss some school along the way, which wasn't a huge concern because most women didn't attend college at this time. Katie got her uniform and equipment, and began playing for the Fort Wayne Daisies in 1951. She remembers her first batting practice very well. The pitcher was speaking to her and she couldn't understand her. Isabel Alvarez was recruited from Cuba the year before and it was the first Spanish speaking person Katie had ever met. Katie had a new nickname "Horsey" from her teammates. The girls in the league traveled by bus, to games. The bus driver, Wally, would stop to gas up the bus and Katie would sneak off wearing a pair of shorts. The girls were to wear only skirts in public, so Katie would have to pay a fine for breaking the rules. It cost her $5 when caught wearing shorts in public. This was a lot of money back then As a rookie, Katie's paychecks were $50 a week which was quite a bit in those days. A bottle of Coke was only $.05, gas was $.15, and new cars were $2500. During the last year playing for the league, she made $90 a week, which was more than she made teaching school ten years later. She came home to graduate from high school, and then she left the same night to get to a game. She played on the road and went to college off-season. When the league disbanded after the 1954 season, Katie and ten other AAGPBL players, along with their manager, began to travel playing ballgames across the country. They took two cars and toured the states for three years, playing games against male teams. They sometimes advertised the games on a fire truck going through town. Katie recalls a game scheduled in 1956 in Jasper, Texas. Her team was supposed to play a Negro (black) men's team. As they were preparing to start, the sheriff's cars pulled up and would not allow a game between them. At this time, whites and blacks were still very separate in the South. After leaving this league, Katie went to school to become a medical records librarian. In 1960, she joined a convent and became a Franciscan Nun. She taught physical education at Sacred Heart High School in Mokena, Illinois. She went on to get her master's degree after leaving the convent in 1965. Catherine Horstman became the first nun in the United States to earn a Bachelor of Science degree in physical education from DePaul University. Back in her hometown of Minister, Katie helped establish the first female track and cross-country team. They now have 24 state female champs. She has nominated to seven Hall of Fame (including the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York). In addition, Katie has won three Gold Medals in the Senior Olympics.