The Illinois Wesleyan softball team was boarding a bus at 4:30 a.m. Tuesday, bound for an airport to fly to Oregon for an NCAA Division III Super Regional.
Rain fell as the Titans players and coaches emerged from Shirk Center. A smiling 81-year-old held the door. Carol Willis didn’t have to be there, but here’s the thing. She couldn’t imagine being anywhere else.
Willis is the Titans’ most passionate supporter. Her giving spirit has created opportunities and opened doors for them. On a soggy morning, she opened yet another.
The Titans play their home games on Inspiration Field at Carol Willis Park, a facility that has had numerous upgrades in recent years, funded largely by Willis. Without her generosity, IWU would not be hosting the NCAA Division III World Series May 29-June 4.
“Carol has provided so much inspiration and positive change for our softball program,” said IWU ninth-year head coach Tiffany Prager. “She has elevated our program, field and the experience we can provide to our student-athletes to an elite level.
“She is beyond generous and has been so selfless to all of us. And although she never had a chance to compete in athletics or be a part of a team growing up, we sure hope she feels like she’s getting that chance now. We’re grateful she’s a part of our Titan family.”
Willis heartily embraces the “family” feel. For all she has helped provide for the Titans — a large pavilion for hitting and pitching, an artificial turf infield, a high-tech digital scoreboard, new bleachers, a new, larger press box, padding/signage on the outfield fence and gazebos for fans to gather — she says she has received more in return.
“I would encourage everybody, if you’re looking for somebody to support and to receive a lot of joy from, think about doing it while you’re alive,” Willis said. “So many people wait until they pass and leave money to places. But there are so many youth organizations out there, not just athletics but other things, and the joy that it has given me is beyond words.”
A former Bloomington resident, Willis lives in Sarasota, Florida. She returns to Bloomington every April and stays through the end of the Titans’ softball season.
Her hope this year is they qualify to play in the World Series at the park bearing her name. That was the goal as IWU left for Oregon and the best-of-three Super Regional at Linfield College.
Early each season, Willis watches Titans’ games via streaming on her computer. Every time the broadcast begins with “Coming to you from Carol Willis Park,” she gets emotional.
“I kind of pat my heart and say, ‘Wow, that’s me!’” Willis said.
She expects a similar feeling when the World Series begins, this time in person. The NCAA selected IWU as this year’s host back in 2020. A lot needed to be done to get the facility ready, with Willis and Titans’ athletic director Mike Wagner working to make it happen.
They arrived at the names of Inspiration Field and Carol Willis Park, dedicating both in 2021.
“They first wanted to name it Willis Field and I said, ‘I don’t think it carries a message,’” Willis said. “I told Mike, ‘One of the things I’ve always enjoyed in the community is Champion Fields (in Normal). Bruce Callis brought that about because his daughter wanted to play softball. I have spent many a summer out there getting to watch girls play. It’s been inspiring.’’”
That spawned the idea for Inspiration Field, and Wagner suggested Carol Willis Park.
“That put a woman’s name attached to what we’re doing there with softball, and then it comes around to inspiration,” Willis said. “There isn’t hardly a day that goes by that we don’t hear, ‘somebody has inspired this’ or 'somebody is going to be inspired by that.’ It’s pretty wonderful to be able to name that Inspiration Field.”
A message on the hitting and pitching pavilion reads, “Inspiring the future … today.” Willis came up with the slogan.
It captures the current and long-ranging impact of Carol Willis Park. She credits Russell Shirk, the driving force behind the Shirk Center, which opened 30 years ago, and Cary Frey, longtime Normal Parks and Rec director who ran local and national tournaments at Champion Fields, for helping inspire her to get involved.
Her first contribution to IWU athletics was helping fund renovation of the women’s basketball and volleyball locker rooms. She later did the same for women’s soccer.
Meanwhile, a spring trip to Florida by the IWU softball team grabbed Willis’ attention. She drove two and a half hours to watch the Titans play and was impressed by the players and coaches.
“I went back home and I thought, ‘How can I get involved?’’” Willis said.
She came to Bloomington shortly after and found a hitting and pitching net that was falling down, in part because of branches from a nearby tree. A trash bin was close by as well.
Soon, the tree was removed, the trash bin moved and a new hitting and pitching pavilion built. It was the start of the renovations and upgrades.
The most recent was adding the gazebos in front of the park where players, families and fans can gather before and after games.
“The thing I have recently come to realize is you are not only helping the players, you’re also having a trickle-down effect on the parents, the siblings, their friends and also for future players,” Willis said. “When you have that trickle-down effect, what you’re also doing is touching everybody’s heart.”
Willis is reminded of that in December. Her birthday is a week before Christmas and for the past three years, she has received more than 70 handwritten cards from IWU current and former players. One included this from a player: “I wake up happy every day at IWU because of what you have done for us”
Willis was touched.
“It made me realize that I need to wake up happy every day because I have been given an opportunity here to inspire so many young ladies,” she said. “For years, young women did not have a role model to look up to. Now we are being afforded a lot of them. I’m glad that I can inspire these young ladies.”
She seeks to do it as long as she is able. After that? She will stay connected in another way in front of Carol Willis Park.
“Not having any family or children of my own, when that day comes for me, that is where my ashes are going to go,” she said. “I know when I take my last breath, I’ll always be with my girls.”
