KEEP PLAYING
Judy Fischlin
Educator & Athlete
Date of Interview: April 2012
At 67, Judy Fischlin is the poster girl for
active aging. In a late afternoon interview in
her under-construction kitchen — “We keep
waiting for them to be finished!” she says —
the former physical education teacher talked
about her passion for teaching, her passion
for what she calls “vintage” softball, and why
she thinks “we don’t grow old by playing,
we grow old when we stop playing.”
When were you born, and where were you
raised?
I was born January 20, 1945 in Washington,
Pennsylvania, and I was raised in a little nearby town called West Alexander. It’s right on
the border of Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
You are one of 7 kids, and grew up on a
farm. Where are you in the sibling line-up,
and what was it like growing up on a farm in
the 1950s and 1960s?
I was the second oldest. There’s an older
brother, then two boys, then a sister and two
brothers. We were like two families: the first
four, then the last three….I did a lot of babysitting because there were 14 years between
my youngest brother and I.
Growing up on the farm we grew our own
vegetables and raised our own meat. My
father and brothers hunted so we had deer
and rabbit and pheasant….No turkey at
Thanksgiving for us, we had pheasant and
quail. [Laughs] Not under glass, but we had
it.
It was a small farm and, of course, there were
a lot of chores. We had sheep and dairy
cattle: a small herd of 20. We had electric
milkers, except when the electricity was out.
Dad was one of the first farmers to put in a
milking parlor, where you’d bring the cattle
in, hook them up [to the milking machines]
and the milk went right to the tank. But we
started out using those five gallon cans and
a cooler that we had to put them in. That
cooler was also great for chilling watermelon.
It got ice cold.
We [the kids] were involved in 4-H, the Grange,
the Scouts. Most families at that time only
had one car, so there was a lot of carpooling, before carpooling was the norm…When
I stayed [at school] for Scouts, for ten cents
I’d catch the Greyhound to ride home.
But we weren’t that isolated. There were
neighbors and we’d get together, form
teams and take over one of the hay fields
and play football or baseball… My dad,
who played organized baseball in the
communities around where we grew up,
was always taking us out and playing pitch
and catch with us. He was pretty encouraging, so I stuck with it.
What were you good at and not so good at –
both sports-wise and book-wise – at school?
I didn’t care for English literature. I was
always asking: “Why do I have to read this?”
I did play in the band, but as far as sports,
girls were never given the opportunity to
play. If you wanted to be “active,” you were
a cheerleader or a majorette. Sports-wise,
gymnastics was my weak link.
When I got to college, I participated in
everything imaginable because it was there.
But we still didn’t have teams at the school.
Oh, there were teams, but not as organized
as they are today. We’d play field hockey
and then, when winter came, we’d play
volley ball. Then, because most of us played
basketball, too, we’d take down the volleyball net and play basketball.
We did do some “traveling,” going to
Fairmount, West Virginia, and California,
Pennsylvania and Muskingum, Ohio, but for
the most part, there weren’t that many opportunities for college-level play [for women].
When we’d go, we’d drive to the college in
two station wagons and we’d stay in college
dorms, sometimes rooming with some of our
competitors.
And, speaking of college, where did you go,
and what were you planning on majoring in?
I went to West Liberty State College, which is
now West Liberty University, in West Virginia,
just north of Wheeling and Olgebay Park.
I’d been a gym leader my junior and senior
years and I’d pretty much decided I was
going to major in physical education by my
senior year in high school…And at that time,
too, women’s physical education was a
wide open field due to the fact that we had
women’s physical education teachers and
men’s physical education teachers. And every school had to have a male and a female
teacher. When I graduated in 1966, I could
have had a job pretty much anywhere.
What brought you to Ohio in 1968? And
what’s kept you here?
I’d worked at a small school in Tioga Center,
New York, which was an hour from everyplace – an hour from Binghamton, an hour
from Ithaca, an hour from Corning – and I
decided I wanted a change, so resigned my
job and put out applications. My father was
very upset about that.
I worked at a camp that summer, and
one of the owners of the camp was a guidance counselor at [Cleveland] Heights High
School. He told me to put in applications
around Cleveland, and I did, and the one for
South Euclid/Lyndhurst came through and I
took it.
Some of the other people and campers were
from the Cleveland area, so I didn’t come in
completely blind. And, once I came, I made
sure that I was involved in other activities. I
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got involved with a women’s sports
organization that had field hockey groups
that played and traveled – to Michigan, to
New York.
a lot of creative activities – juggling, balancing, launch boards, walking on stilts, things
like that – that gave them a variety of skills
that they could succeed in.
And, there was another group – the
Cleveland Women’s Physical Education
Association, made up of women physical
education instructors and officials – and they
met every month and gave you different
ideas about what they were doing in their
buildings. This was a very cooperative and
collaborative group.
You will be competing in the Ohio Senior
Olympics this summer and the National
Senior Games next summer – both of which
will be held in Cleveland. What’s your sport,
and when and how did you get interested in it?
Once I was here for a few years, I thought:
Well, you can move on, but you’ll lose everything you’ve built up here.
You’ve been a physical education teacher
– with a couple of years out to have kids –
since 1966. Over the years, what’s the most
important thing you learned about teaching
athletics and sports?
I’ll be playing softball, definitely! The team
I’m on is a 65-and-over team, and it’s probably the only 65-and-over team that goes to
Ohio competitions.
But I’m not sure we’ll be competing in the
state games this year because we may be
playing in Pittsburgh that same week, in a
tournament that is also a qualifying tournament for the National Senior Games. So we’ll
definitely be in a tournament that will qualify
us for the national games.
The importance of some level of success…
It’s important that every child succeed at
some physical activity…It’s important for
everyone to know that there is something
that they can do, physically. They don’t have
to be the best, but they need to be able do
it and to say: I can do this. And part of that is
getting them to try it.
When and how did you get interested in
senior-level competitive softball?
There’s a whole new atmosphere in physical
education….We aren’t really teaching sports
today, we are facilitating, giving students
pointers, giving them the basics. So, over the
years, I got away from teaching team sports
– as such – because of the increase
in recreation programs available: soccer,
softball, things like that. I got to the point
where we were doing basic skills, lead up
activities. Then, if they wanted – whatever
their interest was – they had the basic skills
to do it, to participate.
I was 56 then, so gave him a call. And we
formed a team and practiced – against the
Huff ‘n Puffers, against a team out of Canton
– and then went down to Columbus for the
2002 Ohio Senior Games.
Over the last few years of my teaching, I did
A few years back – no, it was 2001 – there
was an ad in the [Lake County] News Herald
that a gentleman was looking for women
over 50 to form a softball team for the Ohio
Senior Olympics.
When we saw the competition, a team out
of the Cincinnati area that had won gold
in the National Games, gold in the World
Games, we knew we were in trouble….We
got wiped off the field…But we qualified,
and the next year – over the Memorial Day
weekend – we went to the National Senior
Games in Virginia Beach [Virginia].
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Here we were, all these seniors, walking up
and down the beach, and it was the kind
of experience that really opened our eyes.
Where had we been all this time?
From then, we have really grown. Now in
Cleveland, there are three 50-plus teams, a
55-plus and a 60-plus team that are eligible
to go to the state, and possibly national,
games, and we are one of them.
What’s the team’s name?
We haven’t decided on a name yet, but
I believe we are going to be called the
Tri-Stars, but we know we are playing in the
65-and-up category, and there will be 15 on
the team….It’s a real mix of people. I’m from
the Cleveland area, some of the players are
from the Canton area, some are from the
Cincinnati area, some are from Michigan,
and one is from Kentucky. And that’s OK,
because we have enough players from Ohio
to qualify us as an Ohio team.
[Laughs] We are an older group…I’m 67.
Our shortstop had hip replacement surgery in
November, and is 76. She plays competitive
badminton, too. She’s taken gold at
Nationals in that.
Why are you competing in softball, and not
volleyball, which you’ve been playing competitively for over 40 years?
It conflicts with my softball.
You’ll be participating in either the Ohio or
the Pennsylvania Senior Olympics soon. What
are you – and probably the rest of the team –
doing right now to get in shape?
We are supposed to be throwing and going
to batting cages. And I do try to do that a
couple of times a week. And, there’s a
women’s softball clinic coming up soon
(April 21) and I’ll be going to that.
Cleveland is very proud to be hosting
the 2012 Ohio Senior Olympics and the
2013 Summer National Senior Games!
In addition to hosting the competitions
themselves, Cleveland has created
the “Year of Vitality” community
programming series that is designed
to promote active lifestyles for all with
events, activities and educational
opportunities for people over age 50.
As part of this celebration of active
aging, the Greater Cleveland Sports
Commission and The Benjamin Rose
Institute on Aging are creating a
calendar of athletic “MythBusters.”
The 2013 Calendar will feature athletes
like Judy Fischlin, who are aged 65 and
older and continue to defy the myths of
aging!
For more information about the
Year of Vitality, please visit
www.cleveland2013.com
And the Vintage Softball League will start
playing in mid-May, so we’ll be getting in
some good practices….[Laughs] There will
be enough softball out there to keep us in
shape. And there are some tournaments in
early July that we’ll be going to, too. We’ll
keep busy, and at some of the tournaments
we go to we may pick up other players.
Practicing is important, but what about working with weights or other training equipment?
Everyone is pretty much on their own for that.
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One of the coaches for the team has given
us exercises that we should do. And information on what to do to eat healthy. But you
know, a lot of the ladies on the team work
out on their own. I go to Curves ™ a couple
of times a week. And I joined the Willoughby
Senior Center when I turned 65, too. And I’ll
go over there sometimes. [Laughs] They are
doing things there – like chair exercises – that
I was doing for years with my students.
When you are getting ready to compete, do
you modify your diet?
Not necessarily. When we are playing, there’s
Propel ™ and Gatorade ™ – someone always brings it. And if we are out on the field
all day – playing a series of games – someone will protein bars and crackers and peanut butter.
A lot of people think competing in sports and
games and meets is “all about winning.”
What do you think? In other words, why are
you involved in competitive sports and why
will you be competing in the Ohio and the
national senior games?
Winning is good, however, as long as you
have done your best, it’s not everything. If
you have given your best, you have to accept that some people are just better than
you are.
You’re 67, and retired last year, and definitely
aging successfully. But that means different
thing to different people. What’s your definition of successful aging?
It’s being active and not sitting around and
wallowing in the fact that you are “old.” And
that’s means you have to get out. You have
to socialize and network with people and
stay connected. I have my Girl Scout group:
I’m a trainer and facilitator for scouting. I
have my bowling group. I have my softball
group. I have a group of teachers that I
taught with in South Euclid when I first came
to Ohio and we still get together for dinner
every six weeks or so.
What do you do to stay engaged and mentally active?
I’m a reader – I like Harlequin romances novels, and I’m into the large print, now – and
I like sports books, too. The last one I read
was Shattering the Glass, about the history of
women’s basketball and how far it’s come
over the years. And yes, we have come far.
And I do computer games, and Scrabble,
and word search, too. [Laughs] But no Sudoku, that’s what my husband does.
We don’t grow old by playing, we grow old
when we stop playing.
The competitiveness isn’t just about the competition, it’s showing people that you are still
able to compete, regardless of what our age
says. And it’s also a wonderful way to stay
connected and network. You go, year after
year, and you experience so much and you
see people you know and socialize when
you get back [to the hotel]. That’s one of the
reasons we have such a good time.
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