Female Cubs Exec Changed the Ballgame-- Part 2: Season Tickets and Da Bears

Margaret "Midge" Donahue was hired by Cubs owner William Veeck (Bill Veeck's father) in 1919 when she responded to a job wanted ad he had placed in the Sunday Tribune. She initially turned down the offer to be a stenographer because she wanted to work in the Loop, but Veeck offered her much more than what she was earning at a laundry supply company. She tried to quit at the end of the first season, but he made her hours between 10 and 4, so she stayed.

Donahue impressed Veeck that he started giving her more responsibility, especially in the ticket office. In 1926, he hired her as corporate secretary. That promotion made national news.

In 1929, she began selling season tickets which practice has become a major source of income all across sports.

She even was in on the begiining of the NFL by working for George Halas when he moved the Bears from Decatur to Wrigley Field in 1921 and then continued on Sunday afternoons into the 1930s.

-- DaCoot