Andanh.com

While Arizona State is trying to put the finishing touches on its first NCAA softball championship, it's worth remembering the two national titles won by the Sun Devils in the pre-NCAA days.

Mary Littlewood started the program in 1967 and had more than 500 career wins in 20 official seaons before retiring in 1989. Her teams were national champions in 1972 and '73. The first was when softball was under the umbrella of the National Association for Girls & Women in Sport (NAGWS) and American Softball Association and the second was under the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW).

An entire softball season in those days consisted of 15 games.

The CWS, in Omaha, Neb., was different then. ASU beat barnstorming University of Tokyo, 8-5 in 11 innings, in the 1972 title game. The '73 finale went even longer, 16 innings, with the Devils edging Illinois State, 4-3, on an unearned run.

''Times have changed,'' Littlewood said in 1989. ''When I first came to ASU (1965, as a physical education teacher and coach of several sports), we didn't have to determine eligibility. Anybody could play.

''It was tougher. We had no money and always drove to games. The kids appreciated it more because they had to work for it so hard.''

Littlewood's book The Path to the Gold is a history of women's fastpitch in the United States up to the sport's Olympic debut in 1996. It chronicles some of Arizona's rich softball history from the 1930s into the Sixties when the Ramblers and Queens rivalry drew huge crowds and made stars of players like Dot Wilkinson, Billie Harris, Amy Peralta, Margie Law, Ricki Caito and Sis King.

The Ramblers ASA national titles in 1940, '48 and '49 were huge news at the time, starting a legacy that led to the Sun City Saints' title in 1979. More recently, of course, Mike Candrea directed the University of Arizona to eight NCAA titles including 2006 and '07 and will try for a second Olympic gold medal this summer as coach of the U.S. women's team.

Former ASU coach Linda Wells recruited current stars Katie Burkhart, Mindy Cowles, Kristen Miller, Jackie Vasquez and Rhiannon Baca and also signed Kaitlin Cochran and Jessica Mapes.

Wells, at ASU through 2005, coached the host Greek team to seventh place at the 2004 Olympics in Athens and now is an assistant coach on the Netherlands team for the upcoming Beijing Olympics. Liz Kelly of Phoenix is head coach of the Dutch team.