For three years during World War II, Ladies Softball provided Simcoe's brightest athletic moments.

Coach & Manager Orlin "Mike" Houser,  secretary-treasurer Jean Houser,  captain Louise Chute,  Muriel Wilkes, Ruth Cotton,  Muriel Griffey,  Rose Jenereaux, May McGhie (Kendrick),  Jean Moyer,   Elsie Griffin (McBride),  Thelma Beemer,  Margaret McPherson,  Muriel Wylie and Beatrice Crowley were the 1941-1943 Simcoe Stars softball team.

Businesses closed for the afternoon as residents congregated at Wellington Park to watch the Simcoe Stars march toward the town's first Ontario softball championship in 1941.   "The crowds were huge. It was a real community effort," Elsie Griffin (McBride) remembered more than 50 years later.

After the championship win against Sudbury's Foamettes, fans drove the team around town on the fire truck, a Simcoe tradition for provincial champions.  An awards banquet was held at Trinity Anglicaan Church.  Admission tickets were 75 cents.

The next two years the Stars' stature grew as the squad knocked off Toronto teams to finish off the championship run for three years.  The team played at the Canadian National Exhibition.

The team uniforms were complete with shiny shorts and wool stockings and stars.  "The stockings made me sweat behind the knees, but they were great for sliding," Elsie Griffin (McBride) recalled at the team's Hall of Recognition induction.  "But I did not like the location of the stars."

McBride was one of four "ringers" imported from Brantford to play for Simcoe.  Ringers commuted between Brantford and Simcoe by train, and received cab fare home from the train station after dark.