ADAMS, Mass. — The Mother Town finally has a monument to a woman who was a mother figure to generations of girls and women.

 

On Saturday afternoon, the Adams Lassie League unveiled a plaque honoring Margaret "Peg" Leavitt, one of the league's founders, a multi-sport coach at Hoosac Valley and South Hadley High Schools and a standout athlete in her own right.

 

In a ceremony attended by Leavitt's friends, family members and former players, current league administrative director Corey Bishop and board member Cindy Bird revealed the plaque, which features a photo of the local legend and a little about her life and legacy. The plaque will be prominently displayed on the storage building behind the backstop of Russell Field, so future generations of the town's softball players can learn about the woman who blazed a trail for all of them.

 

"In the '70s and early '80s, the idea of girls participating in sports was not the norm," Leavitt's daughter, Laura Walesby, told the crowd. "She wanted young women to have the same opportunities as young men."

 

The league that she helped found in Adams has been around for 40 years, but until Saturday her contributions were underappreciated, Bishop explained.

 

"It is my understanding from my research that a woman has never been recognized in the town of Adams for her accomplishments and the work that she's done in the town," Bishop said. "I've never seen a plaque anywhere. I've never heard anything.

 

"I know Susan B. Anthony is getting a lot of votes right now, but Peg beat her. Peg's being recognized today, and we're very glad we're doing that."

 

While Adams' most famous native daughter made her name as a suffragette on the national stage, Leavitt was a star on the local fields and in the local gyms, even though she was remembered Saturday as someone who didn't seek the limelight but instead put her young athletes first.

 

"Today we dedicate this plaque, and we also rededicate the young people who will share this place," said the Rev. Greg LaFreniere, deacon of St. John Paul II Parish, who gave the invocation. "As we pray here today, we ask you to lead us to measure success in the ways that you measure excellence, the ways Peg measured excellence and success.

 

"You remind us that while we are called to teach and coach, we are also first called to learn. While we are called to lead, we are first called to serve. As a teacher, coach and mentor, Peg taught us values that are critical both on and off the playing fields and the courts. What Peg brought to our community so many decades ago was a dedication to sportsmanship, fair play and excellence.

 

"She truly was a trailblazer, emerging on our sports scene when sports for girls and young women were in their infancy."

 

A native of Greenfield and graduate of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Leavitt played semi-professional basketball and softball and coached basketball, soccer, track & field and cheerleading. She came of age an era before Title IX expanded opportunities for girls and women in sports but was very much part of the generation that helped realize the promise of the 1972 law.

 

Among the girls she mentored at South Hadley High School was Lesley Visser, who went on to be a legendary sports journalist, earning enshrinement in the Pro Football Hall of Fame -- the only woman to attain that honor.

 

Last month, Visser was interviewed by The Republican of Springfield prior to a book signing in her hometown.

 

"I loved field hockey, even though nobody came to our games," Visser told the paper in a story found on its website. "Coach Peg Leavitt expected us to be prepared, and you had to earn her respect. She could be serious, but she also was fun on the team bus."

 

On Saturday afternoon, Peg's husband, Thomas O. Leavitt, shared a letter that Visser sent to be read at the ceremony.

 

" 'There was no one more influential in my high school and, eventually, my dreams, than coach Leavitt,' " he read. "We knew as a team that we had something special. She would tell us every day to never quit and to play with enthusiasm.

 

"She was a teacher in the best sense of the word. Never played favorites, wanted everyone to reach their potential and had been a great player herself without bragging about it."

 

Thomas added his own thoughts about Peg Leavitt.

 

"Those of you who had me as a teacher know that many loved me and others? Eh," he said. "But Peg? If you didn't love Peg, there was something wrong with you. Everyone loved Peg."