Jean Havlish, who played professional baseball and was state’s best bowler, dies at 89

In 1999, Jean Havlish was named one of the top 100 Minnesotan sports figures of the 20th century by the Star Tribune and ranked No. 36 among the top 50 athletes in Minnesota for the 20th century by Sports Illustrated.

When asked by the Star Tribune in 1999 for her most memorable moment in sports, the St. Paul native described an experience that came years after her athletic career was over.

Before a Minnesota Twins home game against the California Angels at the Metrodome in June 1992, Havlish and two other Minnesotans — Kay Heim McDaniel and Nancy Mudge Cato — were invited to throw the ceremonial first pitch. All three had played in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL), featured in the 1992 movie “A League of Their Own.”

Havlish, who played catch in front of the Twins dugout before the ceremony, said, “It was one of the greatest moments in my life.”

A shortstop in the AAGPBL for parts of three seasons, Havlish, of Cold Spring, died Sept. 1. She was 89.

The oldest of five children, Havlish grew up on Rice Street in St. Paul’s North End neighborhood. She played baseball, basketball, football and softball, and competed as a speed skater.

Havlish first tried out for the AAGPBL in 1950 as a 14-year old. In 1952, she tried out for the Fort Wayne Daisies and appeared in several games with the Daisies, who had started as the Minneapolis Millerettes in 1944.

She soon took up a new sport: bowling. She developed into arguably the top bowler in state history and is a member of the National Bowling Hall of Fame, the Women’s International Bowling Congress (WIBC) Hall of Fame and the Minnesota Sports Hall of Fame.

She is the only bowler in the Minnesota Sports Hall of Fame and was just the second Minnesotan inducted into the WIBC Hall of Fame. Bertha McBride, also a St. Paul native, was inducted in 1968.

Havlish once held the highest bowling average over a 20-year span for all U.S. women bowlers, 190. In 1964 she became the first state bowler in 47 years to win the Women’s International Bowling Congress title. She rolled record totals of 690 in the three-game singles series and 1,980 in the nine-game all-events, which included team, singles and doubles competition.

“I got started bowling just for the fun of it,” Havlish told the Star Tribune in 1999. “Within a couple of years after I started, I was bowling in an all-star league and I’ve been bowling ever since. I still go to a few state and national tournaments.”

In international competition, Havlish contributed to a U.S. team gold medal and three bronze medals at the the FIQ (Fédération Internationale des Quilleurs) American Zone bowling tournament in July 1981 in Winnipeg.

In 1975, Havlish moved to Rockville, Minn., to work as an assistant to a priest and as a building caretaker of a Catholic church. She held that job for 35 years.

She told the Star Tribune in 1993 that she was happy with her job because “I am doing what God wanted me to do.”

After moving to Rockville, Havlish continued bowling, driving to St. Paul once a week to compete in the St. Paul Ladies All-Star League. In her early 70s, she still had an average of 192.