Whether in a cast or an evening gown, Marion Fox was a presence on a pitcher's mound.

A legend in her playing days for her skill, determination and refusal to wear a glove, Fox was the first person ever inducted into Canada's softball hall of fame.

She died Jan.3 at age 74 from complications from cancer surgery.

The youngest child in a family of three girls and two boys, she grew up in the area of Bayview Ave. and Finch Ave. E. on her parents' farm.

She began her softball career in her teens and played for the Agincourt Maplewood Ladies, while attending Earl Haig high school. Although athletic since childhood, she had focused only on softball and was already dominating the game.

"Right from the get-go they said she had a gift," said her older sister, Dorothy Murphy. "She was an amazing athlete and an incredible pitcher."

With pinpoint accuracy and a fierce rising fastball, Fox turned heads when she pitched: striking out batter after batter, winning game after game. A budding star at 17, Fox delivered a career-defining performance at the Ontario women's finals in 1951. With one ankle broken in a previous game, she insisted on taking the mound for the final innings of the tournament as her team hung on to a narrow lead.

"It was the championship game and her leg was in a cast," her sister recalled last week. "She pitched, though, because she didn't want to let the team down."

Fox ended up striking out seven of the final nine batters she faced and her team won the game and the tournament.

In 1953, she represented Canada in the world tournament, hosted in Toronto that year. There she met another future hall-of-famer, Joy Collict, who would serve as her catcher for the next 12 years.

"She was a team player and she played everything for the team," Collict said of her friend and teammate. "Even though she got all of the awards, she always thought of the team."

Playing on the world stage, Fox was asked to change one of her trademark habits by donning a baseball glove when she went out to pitch – something she had never done. As Collict recalled, she did not take kindly to the idea.

"Our coach tried to get her to play with a glove one game," she said. "I think she pitched about three pitches and she said `that's it' and she threw the glove into the bench."

The issue wouldn't come up again on a diamond, but would draw attention off the field.

"I feel off balance with a glove," Fox told the Toronto Star in a 1977 interview. "Every time I've tried a glove, I've always said to heck with it.

"I look at the game today and the advances it has made in regards to equipment and facilities and I can still smile and enjoy my memories of the days when gloves were worn only by the catcher and the first baseman," she said, when asked of the issue again years later.

Her life took a bad turn on a cold December day in 1962 when she crashed through a window while working at a grocery store. The accident was so traumatic there were fears for her survival.

But 12 months, 100 stitches, and more than 40 blood transfusions later, Fox was back on her feet. It would take her another seven years to step back onto a baseball diamond, when she defied her critics by making a comeback bid with a team from Richmond Hill.

Three years later, Fox would be vindicated when she led her team to the semifinals at the national tournament.

It was about this time that Fox once pitched in an evening gown.

Not expecting to play that night, she had agreed to a dinner date with her then-boyfriend. After the date, a quick stop at the ballpark turned into a two-inning relief appearance.

"She asked her boyfriend at the time to drop her off at the ball field because she wanted to see how the team was doing," friend Bette Kalailieff recalled. "But when she got to the ball diamond they were in trouble, so she went out on the diamond and pitched the final innings in an evening gown."

Friends once estimated she had struck out more than 3,000 batters in her career.

Retiring after the 1973 national tournament, Fox became the first person inducted into Softball Canada's hall of fame in 1977. In all, she played in 10 consecutive world tournaments and was selected to tournament all-star teams on several occasions.

Fox, who never married, leaves two brothers and two sisters as well as many nieces and nephews. A funeral service was held Monday at R. S. Kane Funeral Home in Toronto.