The Athletes Unlimited Softball League is an era of making history as it enters its second season and expands from four to six franchises. But the Chicago Bandits are different from their competition and even the league as a whole.
The Bandits already have a history – they stand on the foundation not only of being a revived team but also of the sport’s birthplace.
Many firsts for softball in Chicago
Softball’s origins begin with a group of men who did not intend to invent a new sport. Instead, they were awaiting news of a football game.
In Chicago on Thanksgiving Day, 1887, these men were waiting to hear the final score of the Harvard-Yale football match-up. Some accounts say that when Yale won, an excited fan tossed the boxing glove into the air, and a disgruntled Harvard fan swatted it with the broomstick. The group soon realized they had a new game on their hands. Indoor baseball — soon to be renamed softball — was born.
The first women’s team quickly emerged in 1895. Chicago’s West Division High School (later known as McKinley High School) fielded a team.
According to the Encyclopedia of Chicago, indoor baseball in Chicago began to move outdoors around 1907. That year, Chicago communities embraced what they called “playground ball”, playing in parks, schools, and churches.
It didn’t take long for softball to spread north to Canada and throughout the United States. Two versions developed: fastpitch, the more athletic of the two, and slowpitch, which was seen as a childhood pastime and is still played in recreational leagues today.
The sport organizationally stabilized in 1933 when Leo Fischer and Michael J. Pauley hosted a tournament at the World’s Fair in Chicago. Fifty-five teams from across the country participated in fastpitch, slowpitch, and women’s softball divisions.
After the competition, leaders met to establish and approve the Amateur Softball Association (ASA). ASA held its championship in Chicago for the next seven years, with men’s and women’s teams from the Windy City winning multiple titles during that time.
ASA is a governing body that still exists today. In 2016, the name changed to USA Softball.
National Girls Baseball Softball League
Most people have heard of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, and even more often, they’ve seen the movie A League of Their Own with Tom Hanks.
But a lesser-known opportunity women had to play professional sports at the time was the National Girls Baseball League (NGBL).
Even though it had baseball in the name, it was actually a professional softball league. The team played with 12-inch softballs and threw underhand fastpitch. Founded in 1944 with five clubs, the league featured teams in the Chicagoland area. Fandom and talent thrived because of the vibrant softball community in the area – the NGBL dominated the Chicago athlete-base which is where some of the best softball players in the country were developed throughout the 50s. Many women played in the Metropolitan League, an amateur women’s softball league.
Teams had sponsors whose name was often tied to branding. There were the Kandy Kids, sponsored by the Brach’s candy company, and the Music Maids, supported by jukebox manufacturer Rock-Ola.
The NGPL was much more progressive than the AAGPBL. Players could wear shorts instead of skirts, and the league was integrated. Gwen Wong, a left-handed pitcher for the Bloomer Girls, was the first Chinese American player. Nancy Ito, also on the team, was the first Japanese American player. In 1951, outfielder Betty Chapman became the first African American professional baseball or softball player.
The league has faded into obscurity despite being in fierce competition with the AAGPBL during its day. Despite advancing the popular game of softball in the city, the league kept baseball in the name for branding and marketing purposes. Softball was still considered a recreational sport – even though the speed and skill of the NGPL players was anything but amateur.
National Pro Fastpitch: Chicago Bandits
Before there were the Bandits, there were the Ravens.
Chicago was one of 10 teams in the first-ever professional softball league that started in 1976. It was called the International Women’s Professional Softball Association (IWPSA), which only lasted four seasons.
Pro softball tried again with the Women’s Pro Softball League (1997-2001), but there wasn’t a Chicago team during that period. Then came National Pro Fastpitch, which took up the mantle left behind by the WPSL. The league was founded in 2004, and the following year, the Bandits were born. In their first season, they recorded an NPF-best 41–7 record, but lost to the Akron Racers in the championship.
On that original team was Olympic gold medalist Jennie Finch, who became the franchise’s most prominent face.
The team won its first title in 2008 and added three more championships to the trophy case in 2011, 2015, and 2016.
Throughout the years, the Bandits played at Benedictine University in Lisle, Illinois, then Judson University in Elgin, Illinois, before settling into their permanent home in Rosemont, Illinois. The newly built stadium at Parkway Bank Sports Complex was the first-ever women’s pro sports-specific stadium built in the United States.
The Bandits called the Ballpark at Rosemont home from 2011 until the team’s final NPF season in 2019. The 2020 and 2021 NPF seasons were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
AUSL: Here to stay
As the NPF navigated the pandemic and financial troubles, Athletes Unlimited launched its first softball season in Rosemont in 2020 with no fans and as one of the only live sports properties to watch at the time. AU Pro Softball was not a traditional league – no coaches, general managers, or owners – and it utilized a unique scoring system with a leaderboard.
The league eventually welcomed fans the following year and expanded outside of Rosemont with seasons running in San Diego, California, and Wichita, Kansas.
Softball continued to prove it had the fan base, TV ratings, and revenue for a traditional league, and the AUSL launched in June 2025. The inaugural season featured four teams playing a 24-game season on a cross-country tour with the intention of becoming a city-based model in its second year.
Those original teams were the Blaze, Talons, Volts, and, of course, the Bandits.
With an updated color scheme and logo, the AUSL revived the beloved franchise. The team debuted in front of what felt like a home crowd on June 7, 2025.
More good news came for Bandits fans on January 13, 2026, when the league announced the team would call Chicago home once again. The return of the Bandits brand represents both a homecoming and a new chapter, blending deep regional roots with the future of professional softball.
The league expanded to six teams with Opening Day in Chicago slated for June 9.
“Chicago has long been one of the most passionate and knowledgeable softball markets in the country, and the Bandits brand has deep roots in the region,” said Kim Ng, Commissioner of the Athletes Unlimited Softball League. “As Athletes Unlimited’s longtime home for softball dating back to its inception in 2020, Rosemont provides an outstanding venue and a central hub for fans across the Midwest, making it an ideal home as we build the next era of professional softball.”
Tickets for the upcoming season are available now.
Editor’s note: this article has been updated since it’s original publishing to include the National Girls Professional Baseball League
