University of Tennessee Athletics
Tennessee Softball's Million Dollar Alum
May 06, 2016 | Softball
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- When she came to Tennessee from Salinas, California, Monica Abbott helped to blaze a trail for softball in the Southeastern Conference. Now, after a landmark deal, Abbott will blaze another trail in the softball world as the first million-dollar softball player.
Abbott signed a six-year, $1 million contract with the Houston Scarp Yard Dawgs, the newest expansion franchise of National Pro Fastpitch. It is a deal that helps move the game of softball forward, paying its most dominant player a salary that matches her talents.
She hopes to have the same effect on the softball word that she had on the program at Tennessee.
“I think it’s always been important to Monica to make an impact in whatever she chose in life,” Tennessee co-head coach Karen Weekly said. “Obviously, she was a trailblazer in saying yes to Tennessee when Tennessee didn’t have a tradition, didn’t have a legacy in college softball. Monica wanted to go and create something.”
Prior to her arrival in Knoxville, UT had made just one NCAA Tournament in its eight years of existence. The team played in a facility at a city park that, despite its small size, was rarely near capacity. Games were rarely televised, the majority of the ones that were broadcast only reached a small regional audience. She helped to change all of that, and not just in Knoxville.
“I think if you talk to a lot of coaches in the SEC, Monica’s signing with Tennessee and coming into the SEC is what elevated SEC softball onto the national stage,” Weekly said. “This is really another example of Monica wanting to take the game to another level.”
By the time Abbott left, the team played in front of standing-room-only crowds en route to four-straight NCAA berths and three Women’s College World Series appearances. She capped her career with a runner-up finish nationally in 2007. Tennessee’s games and those of other SEC schools were seen across the country, with even regular season contests filling time slots on ESPN.
In the process, Abbott rewrote the SEC and NCAA record books and cemented her status as the most dominant pitcher in the history of the college game. Her 2,440 career strikeouts gave her the record by nearly 200. Her 189 victories were 38 better than her nearest competitor. Abbott’s 112 shutouts shattered Michelle Smith’s dominant record of 94.
But Abbott never made her career about her numbers or records, it was all about winning with her teammates and building a legacy for Tennessee that would last years into the future.
That is a parallel that Weekly sees in the announcement made this week, one that she spoke with Abbott about before it was made public.
“The really cool thing in talking to Monica over the last week before the announcement is that it’s not about the money for her,” Weekly said. “It’s about creating opportunities and breaking through a ceiling in hopes that a lot of other people will be able to follow her and make a living in softball and get what female athletes deserve for what they put in.”
The popularity of the program built to the point that Tennessee unveiled the gleaming new Sherri Parker Lee Stadium on campus a year after Abbott’s graduation. She was able to take the field there, not wearing orange, but in the Red, White and Blue of Team USA for an exhibition game. Five years later, she became the first Tennessee player to have her jersey retired.
The legacy that she left at Tennessee and in the SEC continues to grow. After a seventh trip to Oklahoma City in 2015, the Volunteers have now made more trips to the Women’s College World Series without Abbott as they made with her in the circle. UT regularly draws sellout crowds to Lee Stadium and millions more watch on television, with softball games still on ESPN and now a centerpiece of the spring schedule on the SEC Network.
Growth of the game beyond college is the next step, and it is one that Weekly sees coming thanks to her former pupil.
“If the response in social media and throughout the media is any indication, that’s what’s happening,” Weekly said of the attention the announcement has drawn nationally. “You see parents and little girls writing messages that now they feel like they have the chance to make something out of their softball careers in terms of a financial future.
“Now they can dream bigger than they ever thought they could. When I was a kid, you looked to major league baseball players because there wasn’t anyone like this. Now, it’s pretty cool that they can look at Monica Abbott and see that here is a player making a million dollars in this sport and that’s something they can aspire to and dream about.”
