Dotty Fothergill

Dorothy Ann Fothergill (born c. 1945) is an American former left-handed ten-pin bowler who competed in the Professional Women's Bowling Association (PWBA).

In a brief career that was cut short by injury, she won 12 titles on the PWBA Tour, including six major championships.

She graduated from North Attleboro High School in 1963.

Also in 1963, at age 18, she finished third in The Boston Globe's Ten Pin Tournament.

She supported herself as a secretary at Walpole Lanes.

In 1966, she got a taste of her future success, finishing third at the WIBC doubles tournament in New Orleans.

She also joined the PWBA Tour in 1966, acquiring sponsorship from Lincoln Lanes in Rhode Island.

She won her first professional tournament at the PWBA Papago Phoenix Open in March 1967, winning $1,850 in prize money.

The following month, she tallied a record 2,409 in 12 games to win the women's division in the Sixth Annual Connecticut Cancer Bowlathon.

She was named the Woman Bowler of the Year in 1968 and 1969, and defeated many top men's competitors in exhibition play.

Fothergill's career peaked in 1968 and 1969, when she won seven PWBA titles, four of them majors.

At ages 23 and 24, she was named woman Bowler of the Year in consecutive years by the Bowling Writers' Association of America (BWAA).

In 1968, she became the first woman bowler to win more than $10,000 in one season.

A 1969 profile on Fothergill noted that, despite her tiny frame (5 ft, 110 lb), she was able to throw a 16 lb ball with power and accuracy.

The author compared her approach to "a hungry wolf after a lamb chop."

Her tournament victories during those years included:

Despite being the best female bowler, Fothergill's total earnings over a three-year period were less than the prize money for some single men's tournaments.

A competitor finishing 20th in a men's tournament earned as much as the first-place finisher in a women's tournament.

In May 1969, she noted that she might seek to compete in men's tournaments.

Her league tournament averages were as good as 99% of the professional male bowlers.

She also defeated many of the top men's bowlers, including Jim Stefanich (by 115 pins), Dick Weber (by 105 pins), Billy Hardwick (by 113 pins), and Dick Ritger (by 79 pins), in exhibition matches.

When she submitted an application to participate in the men's tournament, the executive board of the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) voted to reject it.

Fothergill recounted the reaction of male bowlers to her application: "A lot of pros have told me, 'Now listen, Dotty, if it were only you it wouldn't be bad at all. But if you get in, how many other women are going to try to do the same thing?... What would we tell our wives?' And I tell them, 'What do you tell your wives about the girls who travel the tour now and don't bowl?'"

Fothergill filed a lawsuit against the PBA seeking $2.5 million in damages on the grounds that the organization had deprived her of the ability to make a sufficient living based on her sex.

The PBA responded with a countersuit seeking $6 million in damages for injury to its reputation and bringing "disastrous ridicule" to the organization.

She sued the Professional Bowlers Association in 1970 when her application to compete in men's tournaments was rejected.

Fothergill continued to compete on the women's professional tour from 1970 to 1976.

In 1970, Dotty won the all-events title in the Women's International Bowling Congress (WIBC) Open Championships, setting a WIBC record for a nine-game score in the event.

Between 1971 and 1973, she won four titles on the Professional Women's Bowlers Association tour, half of them majors.

She won WIBC doubles championships (with Mildred Martorella) in 1971 and 1973.

She was also the only WIBC bowler to win national titles in singles, doubles, all-events, and Queens.

Over the course of her career, Fothergill won a total of 12 titles in professional competition and another six titles in the WIBC Open Championships.

Her major titles came the WIBC Queens tournament in both 1972 and 1973.

She became the second player at the time, and one of only four players all-time, to successfully defend a WIBC Queens title.

Fothergill sustained an arm injury in 1976 that ended her career as a competitive bowler at age 31.

The injury required surgery.

She was inducted into the Women's International Bowling Congress (WIBC) Hall of Fame (later merged into the United States Bowling Congress Hall of Fame) in 1980.

Specifics as to the resolution of the suit are unclear, though one account published in 1993 indicated that Fothergill "found she had too many problems to continue the fight."

She was also one of the charter inductees into the PWBA Hall of Fame in 1995.

Fothergill was raised in North Attleboro, Massachusetts.