ORLANDO, Fla. — More than 3.5 million girls participated in high school athletics during the 2024 and 2025 school years, according to a survey by the National Federation of State High School Associations.

Softball is among the top 5 most popular sports for girls. It’s one in which girls in the 1950s and 1960s wanted to compete, too, but they didn’t have as many opportunities.

What You Need To Know

Members of the Orlando Rebels fastpitch softball team look back on their memories of playing on the team in the 1960s and 1970s 

They have incredible memories of an 80-game winning streak and a 34-inning game, but most of all, the fact that they were some of few women able to play fastpitch softball during that time 

Even though the Rebels didn’t last forever, they helped mark the start of change for girls and women across the country. Title IX passed in 1972 to give girls and women equal opportunities to play sports

Former teammates Sissie Zollinger and Toni Swartout say they are proud of the contributions they made to sports equality and the opportunities for women today

Former teammates from the amateur fastpitch softball team the Orlando Rebels, founded in 1954, gathered together to go down memory lane.

With every turn of the 1974 program, they take a trip back in time.

“It brings back a lot of memories,” said Sissie Zollinger, a former Orlando Rebels player. “I was a very good fielder.”

Zollinger said she loved team sports and loved her team. To this day, she is still friends with her teammate Toni Swartout.

Both women taught in Central Florida during the 1960s and 1970s. But once the bell rang for summer break, they grabbed their gloves to hit the field.

“We traveled all over the country. We played probably 60 ball games a year during the summer,” Swartout said.

The pair has incredible memories of an 80-game winning streak and a 34-inning game. Most of all, though, they remember being some of the few women able to play fastpitch softball during that time.

“Our field guy, Harry, would make sure the field was in perfect condition before all the games. It had stands and had about 1,000 people come to every game,” Zollinger said.

Both women left to play professionally for one year but ended up coming back to Orlando’s amateur team.

“Our stadium was where the first arena was built in Orlando,” Swartout said.

Even though the Rebels didn’t last forever, they helped mark the start of change for girls and women across the country. Title IX passed in 1972 to give girls and women an equal opportunity to play sports.

“We saw women and girls get a choice to do the same thing that boys always got to do and were encouraged to do, and it has been huge for the girls that did that. It changed their life like it did mine,” Zollinger said.

Zollinger started the softball team at Tavares High School, where she coached for many years.

“Girls now, they have the helmets and the facemask, everything. We had nothing,” Swartout said. “We wore short shorts and no protection for the face or the head.”

The women said they are proud of the contributions they made to sports equality and the opportunities for women today.

“I sit here day after day watching softball, basketball, anything that the women are playing. I think it is the greatest thing that they are getting the time and now the money and the exposure,” Swartout said.

But they never forget the past. The pictures and memories are in their homes and hearts, forever.

The Orlando Pride recently recognized Zollinger at their Women’s History Breakfast for her contributions to the Rebels softball team, which pioneered women’s sports and placed Central Florida on the national sports map.