Dorothy O'Neil

Born: Norwich, Connecticut

Right-handed player

USA National Championships:

Women's Singles: 1964

International Records:

Four-Time Uber Cup Team

Ken Davidson Award: 1975

World Uber Cup Team 1962 & 63

USA Badminton "Walk of Fame" Inductee 1994

Dorothy (Dottie) O'Neil was born in Norwich, Connecticut, one of eight children, and has lived there all her life. She began playing badminton in high school at Norwich Free Academy in physical education class and intramurals. She found she was good at it and liked it, and in 1945 she represented the Academy in the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference High School Championships. She won the Girls' Singles that year and in 1946, 1947, and 1948 as well.

In 1948, as a senior in high school she participated in the first US Junior National Championships in Baltimore, Maryland, and reached the semi-finals in Girls' Singles.

Her teachers at Norwich Academy encouraged her to start playing, but were not trained badminton coaches. After high school, she became a secretary and began doing transcription in the radiology department at the Backus Hospital and played badminton at the Norwich YMCA. At that time there was an extensive statewide Connecticut badminton league and she played for the "Y" in their matches. Kenneth Church, a good "A" level player at the "Y," who had had some training from a Canadian professional, took an interest in Dottie and became her first coach.

Dottie became a student of the game, studied the books available to her--by Lee Gustavson and Ken Davidson--and watched players to pick up ideas on footwork, strokes and strategy. In addition to the Norwich "Y," she traveled all over Connecticut to practice (Westport, New Haven, Orange) wherever there were good players and competition. She even trekked to the University Club in Boston on weekends where Wayne Schell helped her and arranged practices for her.

She played in tournaments all along the East Coast and up to Montreal and was a repeated winner in all three events at the most prestigious East Coast events: The New England Open, the Mid-Atlantic and the Connecticut Open.

In Connecticut, Dottie won the Women's Singles at the State Championships from 1953-1973, a record 21 consecutive years, and captured innumerable doubles and mixed doubles titles as well.

At the National level, Dottie was the US Women's Singles Champion in 1964, was six times ranked US #2 behind national and world champion Judy Devlin Hashman, and was repeatedly ranked in the top three in women's doubles, co-ranked #1 with partner Rosine Lemon in 1972.

As an international player, Dottie won the Mexican Open Singles in 1964 and played on the world championship US Uber Cup teams in 1960 & 1963. She also played on the 1969 team and was captain of the team in 1972.

Off the court, she devoted herself to many badminton activities. Dottie served as an American Badminton Association Director, President and Treasurer of the Connecticut Badminton Association, a member of the USAB Ranking Committee, as the Connecticut representative to the Northeast Badminton Association, and ran a playing group in the Norwich area for many years.

She coached for ten years at the Connecticut Badminton Camp, currently coaches at Don Paup's summer badminton camp, and enjoys analyzing strokes and strategy. She served as a line judge at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, is a Ken Davidson Award winner, and has been Tournament Chairman of the Connecticut Open for over 25 years.

Outside of badminton, Dottie became a radiological technologist and is currently the office manager of a Freestanding Diagnostic Imaging Center. She competed in statewide leagues in softball and basketball and in the New England Lawn Tennis Association where she was ranked in the top ten in singles in New England. She is still playing tennis three times a week and working hard to keep active and rehab after knee replacement.