Although the Rockford Peaches, an All-American Girls Professional Baseball team, had their heyday in the ’40s, Susan Stephens wants to preserve their history in order to inspire others.

Stephens, news director at WNIJ Northern Public Radio, presented a rough cut of a video she’s creating during a networking luncheon sponsored by the NIU Presidential Commission On the Status of Women. The video will be displayed at Midway Village & Museum Center in Rockford.

The audience members networked while they ate soup and sandwiches in the Chandelier Room at Adams Hall prior to Stephens’ presentation.

“They mentioned the movie ‘A League of Their Own’ and I was there,” said Beth Hirose, a second-year graduate student in applied family and child studies. “I’m excited to see it.”

Others came to the luncheon with no prior knowledge of the movie.

“I came to hear the topic because I haven’t seen the movie and I don’t know anything about the woman’s baseball team,” said Joan Flanagan, preceptor coordinator for the Rural Adult Nurse Practitioner Project. “I look forward to learning the history of the team.”

Stephens began by giving background information on the women’s baseball teams of the 1940s and early ’50s.

“These women playing baseball were forgotten for 40 years until ‘A League of Their Own’ came out,” Stephens said.

Stephens explained some of the obstacles of being a player in the woman’s league, such as appearances and hectic schedules.

“They had to be pretty and feminine,” Stephens said. “They played as hard as men as they were dressed as Shirley Temple.”

Stephens then showed a rough cut of the video she is creating for the museum. One of the players interviewed told her of a time when they flooded the field so the game would be canceled the following day. Stephens said the women played one game each day and two games on Sunday and were exhausted due to this schedule.

“They have incredible stories and have inspired so many people,” Stephens said. “Every time one of them passes away we lose so much history.”

Luncheons are held a few times during the semester to allow women to network with each other.

“Our main purpose is to get the women of NIU community to socialize, network, and support each other,” said Betty Baugh, staff secretary for the commission. “We’re giving a supportive environment to do that.”

The video was full of humor and surprising facts, which led the audience to ask more questions.

“I want people to get an idea of how much fun these people are,” Stephens said. “Hopefully, it will inspire more girls to play baseball and they don’t have to be on a league of their own; they can play on the same teams as men.”