A longtime college softball coach and former LPGA Tour golfer died on Saturday.
Joan Joyce, the only head coach in the history of the Florida Atlantic University softball program, died at 81 on Saturday.
The longtime softball head coach was also an LPGA Tour professional golfer for nearly 20 years.
ESPN shared the tough news on Twitter.
Florida Atlantic softball coach Joan Joyce, the only coach in the program’s 28-year history and who also was a golfer on the LPGA Tour for 19 years, died Saturday at age 81. https://t.co/vdrshYGtC3
— espnW (@espnW) March 27, 2022
“Joan was a true sports legend, and we are grateful for the 28 years she spent here, modeling the best in personal and professional behavior for our student-athletes,” FAU president John Kelly said. “Joan’s legacy will live on at the university and across the country through the generations of young women she inspired to play — and excel at — softball and golf.”
Joyce is one of the greatest women’s athletes of all-time, getting inducted into the International Women’s Sports Hall of Fame in 1989.
She is perhaps best known for her strikeout of MLB legend Ted Williams. She struck him out during an exhibition in 1961.
“No matter where I go in this world, I always have people coming up to me saying, ‘You struck out Ted Williams,’” Joyce said in 2009. “It always happens.”
Our thoughts are with Joan’s friends and family members.
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