Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 12/29/11
U.S. Lacrosse Hall of Famer Betty Shellenberger will be the special guest tonight when Phillylacrosse.com Editor Chris Goldberg co-hosts “Lax High” on the Lacrosse Radio Network.
The show begins at 6:30 and runs until approximately 7:15. Listeners can tune in at blogtalkradio.com. Callers are invited to participate with questions for Shellenberger, Goldberg and co-host Ty Xanders of Inside Lacrosse at (805) 727-7011.
Shellenberger was among the first girls in the Philadelphia region to be introduced to the sport of lacrosse in 1933 when she was a 7th grader at the Agnes Irwin School in Wynnewood, PA.
After graduating the college prep curriculum at Agnes Irwin in 1939, Shellenberger played for both the U.S. National Teams in lacrosse and field hockey.
In 1942 after the U.S. declared its participation in World War II, she followed her brother and enlisted in the armed services. Her Marine Corps unit was stationed in California, where she worked as an aviation mechanic and played lots of softball, basketball, tennis and badminton.
Returning to the family home in Germantown after four years, Shellenberger resumed playing internationally, teaching and coaching. She started at Friends Select and Friends Central and moved on to establish both field hockey and lacrosse programs at the Stevens School and Chestnut Hill College.
She stopped team competition in 1962, replacing that role with diverse leadership positions in the sports world.
Teaching, umpiring and rating other officials up the tournament ladder, earned Shellenberger several awards and recognitions over the years, including as Distinguished Daughter of Pennsylvania.
Some of Shellenberger’s major honors:
*Honorary Secretary of the International Federation of Women’s Lacrosse Associations (1983-86)
*Named a Distinguished Daughter of Pennsylvania for her contribution to sports (1987)
*Inducted into the Agnes Irwin School Athletic Hall of Fame (2005)
*Inducted into the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame (1986)
*Inducted as part of the Inaugural Class of the USA Field Hockey Hall of Fame (1988)
*Inducted into the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame (1994)
*Inducted into Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame, (2009)
*Inducted into Chestnut Hill College Hall of Fame, 2011
