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Joan Joyce’s $50,000 Posthumous Donation Kickstarts Brakettes Museum Fund
 May 17 - The legendary Joan Joyce always found a way to impose her will on the game, leading the Raybestos Brakettes to 11 ASA National Championships and one ISF World Championship. Sadly, Joan passed away on March 26, 2022, but only after she had enjoyed the greatest all-time sporting career of any female athlete.
Joan threw 105 no-hitters in her Raybestos career, including 33 perfect games, while striking out a franchise record 5,677 batters. Her 429 career wins with the Brakettes led the franchise when she retired and currently rank second all-time. She won a team-record 42 games in 1974 en route to the team’s National and World Championship titles, the latter of which was held in front of nearly 10,000 fans at Raybestos Memorial Field in Stratford, CT.
She also famously struck out all-time baseball greats Ted Williams and Hank Aaron in exhibitions and was also one of the greatest all-time Brakettes at the plate, as well.
Joyce won the Brakettes Batting Title six times and finished her career in Stratford with 940 hits (2nd all-time among Brakettes), 153 doubles (2nd all-time), 67 triples (2nd all-time), 457 runs scored (3rd all-time), and 529 RBI (3rd all-time). She held the franchise record in all these categories when she ended her Brakettes career.
Remarkably, Joan Joyce still found a way to drop jaws last summer, soon after the Stratford Brakettes claimed their 12th Women’s Major Softball title. Even after her death, Joan was again the ultimate game-changer…
A certified letter arrived at the Brakettes’ home office in August 2022, and longtime Brakettes Manager John Stratton visited his friend and softball partner, (since deceased) Brakettes GM Bob Baird, to open it. Together, they would read the letter and learn the details of Joan’s remarkable $50,000 posthumous donation to the Stratford Brakettes!
Once again, Joan’s tremendous gifts would make a generational difference.
The $50,000 check from Joan’s estate would soon become the foundation for the Brakettes Museum Fund, created to help build a Brakettes Museum/Hall of Fame at DeLuca Field in Stratford, CT. The Brakettes will now undertake public crowdsourcing efforts throughout the 2023 season and over the next year to increase the available funds for the building of the Brakettes Museum.
Joan’s sister Janis Joyce recently reflected on what the Brakettes meant to Joan and vice versa. “Joan loved the Brakettes and would do anything for them, obviously. My brother Joe and I look forward to coming to the groundbreaking for the Brakettes Museum when that time comes. We are honored to know that the Brakettes will use her gift in such a meaningful way”.
Completely floored by Joyce’s generosity, Stratton and Baird were also somehow not too surprised. They had witnessed her groundbreaking career for decades and understood her importance to the Brakettes and the game of softball as well as anyone.
“Joan was a special athlete. She dominated softball for 24 years,” said Stratton, who also served for ten years as Joan’s pitching coach at Florida Atlantic University. “She always took time, I don’t care who it was, she’d sit and talk with that person for an hour. She was always good to her (softball) kids, anything she could do to help them. She had a very positive attitude about everything.”
Joyce served as the only head softball coach at Florida Atlantic University for the first 28 years of the program, winning over 1,000 games, and coached the FAU women’s golf team for 18 seasons.
Joan was not just the Babe Ruth of softball, but also a pro golfer on the LPGA tour for almost 20 years. She still holds the record for fewest putts in a tournament round (17) of any PGA or LPGA golfer. She competed on the US National Junior Women’s Basketball team in the 1960’s, played pro volleyball, and bowled multiple 300 games.
“In my opinion, Joan Joyce was the greatest female athlete of all time… And yet Joan was a much better person than she ever was an athlete, and she was a heckuva athlete!”, said Baird at the time of Joan’s passing. “But this amazing gift is unbelievable. It gives us the chance to finally memorialize all the great Brakettes that came through Stratford, and a showcase for the all the team artifacts and photos, jerseys, trophies, and more. Once again, we just can’t thank Joan Joyce enough!”
Despite losing his own health battle on December 31, 2022, Baird was instrumental in arranging meetings with Town of Stratford officials to discuss possibilities for the Brakettes Museum, and led the team’s early research on the subject.
As the Brakettes are a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit group, all donations to the team are fully tax deductible.
To donate to the Brakettes Museum Fund, checks may be sent to:
Brakettes Museum Fund
185 Lordship Road
Stratford, CT 06615
To donate using Venmo: @Brakettes-Inc
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