Dot Richardson

By 1975, Richardson had joined the Orlando Rebels, an Amateur Softball Association fast-pitch team. Barely a teen, Richardson was competing in softball's "major league." She became the youngest player in the ASA since its founding in 1933, holding her own against women twice her age.

In 1979, just hours after graduating from Colonial, Richardson left to try out for the U.S. team that would compete at the 1979 Pan American Games, where softball was being played the first time. Richardson made the team. It was the first of many times she would earn the right to wear U.S.A. across her chest. The youngest U.S. starter on the squad, Richardson earned her first gold medal in international play. Over the years, she collected three more golds in Pan American play (1987, 1995, and 1999).

Dot Richardson

That fall, Richardson entered Western Illinois University and played several sports, including softball. Her.480 batting average led the nation. The following year, she transferred to the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). As a junior, Richardson led the Bruins to the 1982 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) title.