Have you wondered how was softball invented? Well, the game is a combination of the elements of several other sports, including boating (boating club), boxing (boxing glove) and football (football game). The first mention of the sport was made at Harvard-Yale football game on Thanksgiving day in 1887.
Then, the American journalist George Hancock invented the game, similar to everyone’s favourite baseball, but it could be played in a hall. He wrote the rules and gave the dimensions of the field. The first demonstration of the new sport was held in Chicago, at the club Farragut Boat. In 1895, it was held the first outdoors softball game. The first women’s softball team was also formed. The sport received its present name in the 20s of the 20th century.
In 1933 was founded the ASA organization – softball association. In 1952 was founded the ISF – International Federation of Softball. Today it includes more than 130 countries. The first softball competition has been for women only (1965), and a year later appeared a men’s tournament. In the program of the Olympic Games softball was included for the first time in 1996.
The essence of softball as the rules are very similar to baseball. It is played by two teams of nine participants each. Playground for the match looks like a rhombus with sides of 27.4 meters (90 feet). On each corner there is a “base”. First, the visiting team is attacking, while the hosts are defending. The main player is standing in the middle of the diamond. In all the “bases”, there are the defenders. For the strikers it is important to run all the “bases” and return to “home”, the defenders need to bring three hitters of the game (out of bounds). The batter – attacking player stands in front of the catcher, next to the “home” with a bat.
But, I already wrote about the positions in softball and so on… It’s interesting that now there are so many teams, in which play both men and women. That’s why softball is so popular and interesting sport, because I haven’t heard about any other sport to unite men and women at the same time. Of course, that’s more common for the amateur leagues. The sport is practiced mostly by women, which makes it the most popular and trained by girls, sport in the United States.
In conclusion, it can be said that softball has now its traditions among the people all over the world and especially in the USA. It becomes more popular and practiced and it is very sad that it was excluded of the Olympics.

Kurt Ludwigsen, who is a former women’s softball coach in Christian Nyack College, was accused of sexual abuse, which included licking his players’ ears, kissing their faces and lips, slapping their buttocks, grabbing their breasts, directing the girls to sit on his lap, lying on top of them, commenting about ladies’ physical attributes and many other disgusting things.
44-year-old man has even invited a pornographic actress to counsel the athletes. She has directed the underage girls to drink alcohol and dance with male strangers. The actress has also asked the girls to join the pornographic industry. It is also said that some of the Nyack’s staff members have known what was exactly Kurt Ludwigsen doing. So, all the employees will be required will be questioned by the investigators.
The ex softball coach has gone even further, asking regularly his athletes talk about their sexual lives. He has also made a list of the girls he liked more. Ludwigsen also encouraged them to begin a career as a stripper.
Kurt Ludwigsen has even encouraged his underage players to drink alcohol at a cocktail during a trip to New York City. He also made the girls to wear cocktail dresses. This is not the first criminal investigation against the former coach. In 2014, under the alias Kurt Vogner, he was again investigated for the same thing, while coaching a girls’ softball team in California.
But that’s not all! When Ludwigsen had received a negative treatment by his victims, he had limited their playing time or had removed them from the squad. There are several abolished of the team players, due to the fact he felt neglected.
On the other hand, despite of Kurt Ludwigsen’s abuses, he has been a good softball coach, as he has won two national championships while being a coach at the University of Arizona.
“In terms of the criminal resolution, it doesn’t feel like justice. There’s some frustration and, I think, on a larger scale, some concern,” Krouner, the lawyer of the players, said.
Kurt Ludwigsen eventually pled guilty and will be required to serve three years of probation and perform community service. The sentence doesn’t seem harsh enough for the former Nyack College’s softball coach, whose inadmissible actions deserved a crueler punishment.
The only good news is that the former coach, for sure, will struggle to find his next workplace as a softball coach. So, he will surely need to change his profession.

Softball was played at the Olympics in the period between 1996 and 2008. Then it was removed and the efforts to be brought back in 2020 may not be successful. However, there has been 4 tournaments within the period.
The first appearance of Softball in the Olympics was in 1996. The tournament was held at Golden Park, Columbus, Georgia (USA). 8 teams took part in the competition (the USA, China, Australia, Japan, Canada, Chinese Taipei, Holland and Puerto Rico). The competition was pretty predictable, as the US team won the golden medals. The US players lost only 1 game and won 8, becoming the first softball Olympics champions.
Then, the US national softball team performed at the same top level again in the next two Olympic games (Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004) and eventually won again the golden medals. And the Americans were expected to do it again in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.
The United States finished unbeaten in the preliminary group. They recorded 7 victories of 7 matches. Then, again, everything looked ok in the semi-finals, beating 4-1 Japan. But Japanese players had another chance to qualify for the final. They just had to win against Australia and they did it (4-3). So, Japanese players had another chance to win the tournament.
US team beat Japan twice in the tournament before the final match. But, the big underdogs made something special and took the golden medals. Japan put an end of the three consecutive successes for the United States at the Olympics. Can you imagine a team like Japan, which has lost twice (0-7 and 1-4) from the United States, becoming the champion? Well, maybe they have learned from their mistakes in the beginning of the competition.
So, the balance of the all 4 softball tournaments at the Olympics is: 13 nations have ever taken part in such a tournament. The USA national team won 3 golden and 1 silver medals. The Japanese players won 1 golden and 1 silver medal. Australia set a record in the competition for the bronze medals, retaining them on 3 occasions. The Aussies won also the second place in 2004.
We are looking forward to see what will be the decision for the 2020 Olympics, but maybe Wrestling is going to be on the programme instead of softball and baseball, which is so sad for such enjoyable sports.