Like many other people I know, I closely followed the recent Women’s College World Series softball games, and as a resident Oklahoman was delighted to see the Sooners win their third consecutive national title.

It was statewide pride that made Oklahomans rally behind the OU team. Many of my friends who normally prefer to root for Oklahoma State, were pulling for the Sooners once the Cowgirls were eliminated from contention.

I have to say, before moving to Oklahoma 22 years ago, I was not really aware of college softball. My Connection with softball really was due to the office slow pitch teams that I participated on back in Illinois in the late 60s, early and mid-70s. Anyone who witnessed the play of those teams would readily agree that there is little similarity with the way the players in the WSCS play and the manner in which our stumblebum team went about its business.

Our first year, the team was sponsored by a foundry, and we were so bad the foundry refused to sponsor us a second year. In a sport where most batters have averages in the .600s, our best hitter was batting .240. I was the RBI leader, but I am reluctant to say how few I had. Almost nobody strikes out in slowpitch, but we had several who struck out multiple times. We were bad. So bad that the sports editor wrote a column about our ineptitude and he won a comedy writing contest with it.

But back to the subject at hand-- great softball teams. I had a request to write about the college softball and I will try to comply.

Title IX was passed in 1972, a piece of legislation that made it compulsory for colleges and high schools to provide equal opportunities for woman and men in athletic programs. That was the key to making women’s sports like basketball and softball the huge success they have been in recent years. Before Title IX women’s sports were governed by the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women. Title IX made the NCAA, which long had had programs for men, also include women’s sports under its umbrella. The AIAW was formed in the late 1960s, but the NCAA took over control in 1982. The NCAA Women’s College World Series has been played ever since.

The women’s playoffs and the men’s baseball playoffs basically have the same format. Sixty-four teams are invited to participate in 16 regional tournaments under a double-elimination format. The 16 winners of the regionals move on to play a bestof three super regional, with the eight winners qualifying for the WCWS. The first seven World Series were played in Omaha, Neb., the city in which the men’s championships have been played forever. The 1988 and 1989 WCWS were played in Sunnyvale, Calif., and in 1990, the event moved to Oklahoma City, where it has been every year since. The venue is Hall of Fame Stadium, near the National Softball Hall of Fame.

Oklahoma, as most Sooner fans can recite from memory, now has won three consecutive WCWS. The only other team to win back-to-backto back championships was UCLA in 1988 through 1990. The Sooners won their seventh national title this season, including six in the last 10 years. Only UCLA, with 13, and Arizona, with 8, have won more.

Patty Gasso was the coach of all seven Oklahoma national championships. She trails Sharron Backus of UCLA and Mike Candrea of Arizona, each who has eight championships.

After UCLA, Arizona and Oklahoma there is quite a drop off. The next teams with the most championships are Florida, Arizona State and Texas A&M, each who have won twice.

I read somewhere that OU is planning to erect a statue of Gasso, the first statue of a woman in school history. She has been the Sooner coach since 1995 and she has an overall record of 1,395 wins, 344 losses and 2 ties in her tenure in Norman. She is a native Californian, having played college softball at California State University-Long Beach and started her coaching career at Long Beach City College from 1990 through 1994.

She was successful at Oklahoma right off the bat, but after the 1999 season came close to leaving Norman. She said that money was tight and her husband was unable to find a job in the Oklahoma City area. He had gone back to California to get employment. Coach Gasso was coaching softball and raising two children, heavy demands on her time and energy. She stayed one more year and won the national championship in 2000, earning a huge salary increase in the process. Her husband was able to return to Oklahoma and the rest is history, with Coach Gasso building a dynasty.

Backus retired from UCLA in 1997 after coaching there since 1975. In addition to winning eight national championships, she built an 847-1673 record at UCLA. She had been a champion AAU softball player with the Whittier Gold Sox, the Orange Lionettes and the Rabestos Brakettes. In her playing career, she was a member of a national champion team seven times, at shortstop and third base.

Candrea was a baseball player at Central Arizona at second base. He became an assistant baseball coach at Central Arizona and then took over the head softball position. He moved to the University of Arizona in 1986, eventually retiring in 2021. During his softball coaching career, he won eight national championships, and compiled a 674-433-2 record. His win total is the most among softball coaches, Oklahoma State has had a good softball program as well. They have yet to win a national championship, but have qualified to play in 11 NCAA WCWS tournaments as well as four AIAW WCWS. Since 2019, the Cowgirls have been to the WCWS four times. They have been invited to participate in the NCAA playoffs 29 times and they won the Big 12 Conference Tournament in 2022.

Oklahoma has had a plethora of outstanding players during recent years. This year pitcher Jordy Bahl was the Big 12 pitcher of the year for the second straight year. Bahl was the one Gasso called upon to close out the final game against Florida State after having beaten the Seminoles the day earlier. Bahl, who was just a sophomore, announced she will enter the transfer portal in an effort to be able to play closer to her Nebraska home.

I remember a couple of home run hitters over the recent past. One was Lauren Chamberlain, who broke the NCAA career home run record in her senior year in 2015 and finished with 95 over her career. Chamberlain held the career record until 2022 when Jocelyn Alo, also of OU, broke the record and went on to hit 122 home runs in her career. Both Alo and Chamberlain played professional softball after their collegiate careers.

There was a video that appeared after this year’s WCWS of several of the Sooners expressing their Christian faith during a press conference. I heard many comments about how nice it was to hear young athletes articulate a strong religious belief.

I have become a fan. To me, women’s college softball has become a major attraction. I guess that’s the Oklahoman in me speaking.