Margaret Donahue

Margaret Donahue
(Midge)

• Born December 13, 1892 in Huntley, IL USA
• Died January 30, 1978 in Huntley, IL USA

Biographical Information

Margaret Donahue was one of the first women to hold an executive position with a major league baseball team. Others who had reached such positions before her had all done so because they also held an ownership share, almost always through inheritance. In Donahue's case, however, she worked her way to the senior levels with the Chicago Cubs.

She was first hired by the Cubs as a stenographer in 1919 and was promoted to club secretary in 1926. While this is no longer considered a significant position, for the first eight decades or so of professional baseball, a club's secretary was one of its key officers, responsible for all record keeping, for the organization of board meetings, and for all correspondence with the League. Along with President, Vice-President and Treasury, it was one of four key officer positions in the front office. It was eventually displaced by the General Manager, which was originally an offshoot of the President position.

In any case, her appointment was a big deal at the time, and she was usually seen in team photographs alongside owners William Wrigley and Philip Wrigley, and team President William Veeck. In 1950 she was given the formal title of Vice-President along with her secretarial duties. She was considered an expert in the arcane rules concerning player transactions, particularly the rules regarding waivers. She also worked in promotions and came up with a number of ideas now considered so obvious that it is easy to forget that they were once ground-breaking, such as selling season tickets, giving discounts for youngsters, and selling tickets off-site through telegraph offices run by Western Union. In fact, she had such a brilliant baseball mind that some have speculated that following Veeck's death in 1933, the Cubs could have avoided their subsequent downfall if she had been named to succeed him instead of William Walker and Philip Wrigley, neither of whom were true baseball men. She retired in 1958.

She never married or had children, and returned to her birth city of Huntley, IL, north of Chicago, IL, after retirement.

She was elected posthumously to the Chicago Cubs Walk of Fame (now the Chicago Cubs Hall of Fame). As of 2023, she was the only female member of that esteemed group.

Related Sites

• Margaret Donahue at the SABR Bio Project