Cione quickly established herself as one


of the league’s elite pitchers. Her left-handed, sidearm delivery frequently baffled batters. She threw three no-hitters during her 10-year career and executed a rare unassisted triple play while play- ing first base. “Jean was our star pitcher and one of the best I had ever seen,”


says Delores “Dolly” White, 79, who played with Cione on the Kenosha Comets from 1948-1951. “She was very serious about her pitching and was all business on the field. I played first base and hated it when Jean fielded a bunt. It was difficult to catch her hard sidearm throw.” The owners treated their players very well—many earned


more money than their fathers. “My first contract was $150 a week, which was more than


my father made as an auto mechanic,” says White, who retired after 31 years as a physical education and recreation instructor at Henderson State University in Arkadelphia, Ark. “What attract- ed us was the chance to play professionally and earn good pay. In retrospect, we played a crucial role in changing ideas about what women can and can’t do. Many of the players went on to become professors of physical education. Those were the doors that were open to us at that time.”


The Science of Sports During her off-seasons, Cione took classes at Eastern and


earned a bachelor’s degree in education in 1953. She taught high school physical education in Rockford and earned a master’s in education from the University of Illinois in 1962. Later, she conducted post-master’s work at the University of Michigan. Cione returned to Eastern in 1963 as an instructor and spent


the next three decades teaching anatomy, physiology, kinesiol- ogy and other sports medicine classes in the School of Health Promotion and Human Performance. Former student Durak says she carried her no-nonsense attitude to the classroom. “If you asked a question that the textbook covered, she’d tell


you to look it up and give you the page number,” says Durak, who works at the University of California-Santa Barbara as a wellness specialist and owns a health promotion company. “She didn’t yell at people, but she didn’t mess around—you were expected to know your stuff.” Cione hired Durak for two years as an undergraduate


teaching assistant for her anatomy and physiology lab. When he graduated, Cione told him the test scores students earned during that period were the


best she had ever had. “That was a great compliment,” Durak says. “She was a lot more than just an anatomy teacher. She was a great men-


tor who encouraged me to pursue graduate work. We stayed in touch through the years. I still occasionally refer to notes I took in her class.” Lucy Parker, now retired from Eastern and living in Bonita


Springs, Fla., was a friend and colleague of Cione’s. Parker says Cione was instrumental in developing women’s sports at Eastern in the years leading up to Title IX’s implementation in 1972. “In the 1960s, there was no women’s athletic program at


Eastern, just club sports,” says Parker, 75, who retired as associ- ate athletic director. “Jean ran the club sports program, coached the softball team and did some fundraising. During that time, she created a model for the women’s athletic program in advance of Title IX. She firmly believed in equality in athletics, but she didn’t stand on a soapbox. Once the women’s athletic program was created, she devoted herself to academics. She loved teaching and knew that many of her students were the first in their family to go to college. She was really invested in their success.” Cione didn’t share many memories about the AAGPBL with


her students or colleagues, but she became highly involved in its players’ association after retiring and moving to Bozeman. “A League of Their Own” revived interest in the league, and Cione and the other surviving players became celebrities. In addition to granting interviews about her days in baseball, Cione contrib- uted to a video presentation about the league for the National Baseball Hall of Fame’s exhibit on women in baseball. She was inducted into the E-Club Athletic Hall of Fame in 1986 and the National Italian-American Hall of Fame in 2007. Cione spent her final years traveling, golfing, volunteering at


the Museum of the Rockies and following her beloved Chicago Cubs. “We never did, and still do not, envision ourselves as


pioneers,” Cione said in a 2005 interview with the “Bozeman Chronicle” about the AAGPBL. “The movie made us pioneers. For us, it was an opportunity to play a sport we dearly love at the highest level. We would have done it for nothing.” 3


Eastern | SUMMER 2011 25


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