Margaret Heinrick

Margaret was born in Tacoma on July 22, 1932 to a prominent sports family well-known to the local area, as her father was John Heinrick, a longtime player, coach and athletic director several schools including Stadium and the College of Puget Sound. Known to her friends as “Maggie”, she graduated from Stadium high in 1950 and from CPS in 1954. Margaret had a long and successful career in fast pitch softball.  Starting at the young age of 13, Margaret landed a position with the strong Lincoln Electric team in 1945.  She then played for the Sumner Athletic Club “Maids in 1948 and 1949, winning the Washington State Softball Championship in the second year with the team.

Her career in fastpitch took her all over the state and into Canada and Oregon and afforded her the opportunity to play with some of the best women softballers in the nation. Margaret played every position on the diamond when asked to by her coaches, which included pitching and catching.  She was definitely a talented player. In fact, a 14 year-old Maggie was selected to catch for the Ft. Lewis women’s team that was traveling to play at Nationals and later on she pitched against the Phoenix Queens and Her Court, one of the premier traveling teams in the country.

In the 50’s Maggie played for the Hollywood Boat & Motor team and then moved on to play for the Cage Tavern, the first slowpitch team to qualify for Nationals from this area.  When the Cage’s sponsor sold the tavern and bought Spud’s Pizza Pete, she played on that team until 1972. When Pizza Pete broke up and formed two separate teams Maggie elected to go to play with the Tony’s Wahzoos team as a Player/Coach, offering her veteran experience to a very young group of athletes. She also played for several different sports teams under the Cloverleaf Tavern banner. Another Heinrick, Shannon (her niece), played with the Wahzoo’s and also inherited the family’s athletic genes.

In addition to fastpitch and slowpitch, Maggie played competitive basketball, was an excellent bowler, and was one of the top sports officials in volleyball, basketball and softball for many years. When sports were not consuming her time on the field, she was in the classroom at Curtis Jr. High where she taught for many years. Margaret passed away from cancer in 1998.