Leane Ledbetter may be the only woman who ever celebrated her 55th birthday by throwing touchdown passes. After helping the Brunettes score a 28-14 victory over the Blondes in their fourth annual flag-football game, Ledbetter had the game ball — her ball — tucked under her arm. “I ordered it on Amazon,” she said of the artificial pigskin. “I love throwing this ball.”
She threw the football in tight, accurate spirals, two of them into the hands of Annick Lamb in the end zone. Where did Ledbetter learn to pass with such proficiency? “I’ve been a PE teacher for 27 years,” she said. “I’ve thrown a lot of passes.” Any resemblance to the great Johnny Unitas was intentional. She wore his No. 19. “My chosen number,” she said.
Ledbetter got her start in sports as a basketball player at Dos Pueblos High at the beginning of the Title IX revolution, the antidiscrimination law that spurred the growth of women’s and girls’ sports. Most of the other Blondes-Brunettes players were energetic twenty- to thirty-somethings who grew up in team sports, which made for an exciting and sometimes bruising football game Saturday at Bishop Diego High.
