Jone Bush was Hall of Fame Nominee

Morrisons Cove is well represented in the Blair County Sports Hall of Fame, but may be missing one athlete worthy of induction. She is Martinsburg native Jone Bush, 86, who was considered for inclusion in the Hall of Fame class of 2004. More about her later.

Every two years the board of directors for the Hall organizes a black tie dinner that honors new selectees. The last induction was last weekend, April 9, at the Casino in Lakemont. Morrisons Cove is already represented in the Hall by Harry Clarke and Mark Raugh of Roaring Spring and Galen Hall of Williamsburg. All gained their renown in the sport of football.

Other Williamsburg honorees are Dick Buckley, Don Appleman and Bill Kagarise.

Claysburg is represented by Danny Napoleon and Jill Brumbaugh.

Harold Price, who began his head football coaching career at Williamsburg High in 1961, is also a member of the Hall. Price’s induction was a testament to talent and hard work overcoming initial failure. During his first two years at Williamsburg his teams did not win a single game. In fact, Price remembered, “One season the total points we scored all year would not have been enough to win even one game.”

Price turned the Williamsburg program around and produced district champs before moving on to college coaching.

One athlete from Morrisons Cove who I thought would interest the selection committee was Jone Bush of Martinsburg. Jone was the first Blair County high school female athlete to compete on a boys’ varsity team, and who played regularly. In 1950 she was a member of the Martinsburg High School baseball team and got significant playing time. Her athletic prowess and fame spread beyond this area. In 1952 she was recruited to play professional baseball for the Hagerstown (MD) Mollies, a barnstorming girls baseball team, like the one seen in the motion picture “A League of Their Own.” She played for the Mollies until 1955.

At West Chester University near Philadelphia, she played varsity softball and basketball and added tennis to her sports repertoire. After gaining a master’s degree from Penn State she added a doctorate from Springfield (MA) University. In 1980 she coached the East Stroudsburg University women’s softball team to the first-ever Pennsylvania College Athletic Conference championship. She also coached other teams in softball and tennis.

Dr. Bush retired from teaching and coaching as a full professor in 1996.

Pioneer girls’ Morrisons Cove athlete and former women’s professional baseball player (at a time when women had little chance for sports recognition) Jone Bush was my nominee for the Blair County Sports Hall of Fame, class of 2004. Unfortunately, she was not selected, but had the honor of being nominated.

Jone, a gifted athlete, coach and educator, now lives in retirement at Homewood in Martinsburg.