[1] In 1947 Delores Brumfield became one of the youngest players to join the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League at the age of 14.
Following her baseball retirement, she earned a master's degree and doctorate in physical education and worked as a teacher and coach for 40 years.
[2] Born in Prichard, Alabama, Delores was the oldest of three children into the family of Earl Henry and Miriam McKay (née Turner) Brumfield.
[3] At an early age Brumfield learned to play sandlot ball with other neighborhood kids, trying out for the league in 1946 when she turned 13.
After failing to make the grade, she joined a softball team made up of girls from the Brookley Field area military base in Mobile.
Her parents did not like the idea, but they agreed after a league's player, Margaret Holgerson, offered to serve as a chaperone for their daughter during the trip.
Fort Wayne, with Bill Allington at the helm, clinched the regular season title but lost to the Kalamazoo Lassies in the best-of-three first round.
Despite her successful year, Brumfield suffered a prolonged case of anemia during the regular season and decided to concentrate in her college education.
She took up teaching at Henderson State University and retired in 1994 after 40 years of dedicated work, being honored with the title professor emeritus.