| Year | Event | Source |
| 1887 | Softball originated in Chicago on Thanksgiving Day. A group of about twenty young men had gathered in the gymnasium of the Farragut Boat Club in order to hear the outcome of the Harvard-Yale football game. After Yale's victory was announced (18-7) and bets were paid off, a man picked up a stray boxing glove and threw it at someone, who hit it with a pole. George Hancock, usually considered the inventor of softball, shouted, "Let's play ball!" He tied the boxing glove so that it resembled a ball, chalked out a diamond on the floor (smaller dimensions than those of a baseball field in order to fit the gym) and broke off a broom handle to serve as a bat. What proceeded was an odd, smaller version of baseball. The game lasted an hour and ended with a score of 41-40. That game is now known as the first softball game. Softball may have seen its death on the day of its birth if Hancock had not been so fascinated by it. In one week, he created an oversized ball and an undersized rubber-tipped bat and went back to the gym to paint permanent white foul lines on the floor | http://www.softballperformance.com/softball-history/ |
| 1888 | In the spring, Hancock's game moved outdoors. It was played on a small diamond and called indoor-outdoor. | http://www.paracletehs.org/technology/adv_comp/webs_sem2/catherine/newpage2.htm |
| 1889 | First winter league formed, using the same large and soft balls that were anywhere from 10 to 20 inches in diameter that were used indoors were also used for the outdoor games. | http://www.softballperformance.com/softball-history/ |
| 1895 | Lewis Rober, Sr., (a fire department officer) needed an activity to keep his men occupied and in shape during their free time. He created his game to fit the confines of a vacant lot next to the firehouse and the result was instantly appealing. Surprisingly, Rober was probably not familiar with Hancock's version of the sport because it was still concentrated in Chicago at that time. Rober decided to limit games to seven innings because this allowed games to be completed in an hour while being active and competitive. They used a vacant lot beside to the fire-station, Rober laid out bases with a pitching distance of 35 feet. His ball was a small sized medicine ball with the bat two inches in diameter The first women's softball team was formed in 1895 at Chicago's West Division High School.The basic equipment was a huge 17-inch ball and a stick-like bat. No gloves were worn, and the catcher wore no mask. The ball was truly soft—the rules called for it to be made of a "yielding substance"-far from the hardness of the softball of today. The distance between bases was greatly reduced from baseball, being only 27 feet apart. The pitcher was a mere 22 feet from home plate. Sandbags served as bases, and players were allowed to slide into them and push them along in the slide. The game involved nine players, with two shortstops, left and right, and only two outfielders, left and right. | http://www.softballperformance.com/softball-history/ http://www.collegesportsscholarships.com/softball-history-facts.htm http://www.ihsa.org/initiatives/hstoric/softball_girls.htm |
| 1897 | First team formed outside of United States in Toronto, Canada The premiere publication of the Indoor Baseball Guide. This was the first nationally distributed publication on the new game and it lasted a decade. | http://www.paracletehs.org/technology/adv_comp/webs_sem2/catherine/newpage2.htm |
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