Dotty Fothergill

Specifics as to the resolution of the suit are unclear, though one account published in 1993 indicated that Fothergill "found she had too many problems to continue the fight."

In December 1979, Fothergill was named to the WIBC Hall of Fame. The formal induction ceremony took place in April 1980. She was also one of the charter inductees into the PWBA Hall of Fame in 1995.

Fothergill sustained an arm injury in 1976 that ended her career as a competitive bowler at age 31. The injury required surgery.

Fothergill continued to compete on the women's professional tour from 1970 to 1976. In 1970, she won the all-events title in the WIBC National Championships, setting a WIBC record for a nine-game score in the event. She also won the WIBC Queens tournament in 1972 and 1973 and doubles championships (with Mildred Martorella) in 1971 and 1973. Between 1967 and 1972, she won eight titles on the Professional Women's Bowlers Association tour. Over the course of her career, Fothergill won a total of 18 titles in Women's International Bowling Congress (WIBC) and professional competition. She was also the only WIBC bowler to win national titles in singles, doubles, all-events, and Queens.

Despite being the best female bowler, Fothergill's total earnings over a three-year period were less than the prize money for some single men's tournaments. A competitor finishing 20th in a men's tournament earned as much as the first-place finisher in a women's tournament. In May 1969, she noted that she might seek to compete in men's tournaments. Her league tournament averages were as good as 99% of the professional male bowlers. She also defeated many of the top men's bowlers, including Jim Stefanich (by 115 pins), Dick Weber (by 105 pins), Billy Hardwick (by 113 pins), and Dick Ritger (by 79 pins), in exhibition matches.

Fothergill's career peaked in 1968 and 1969. At ages 23 and 24, she was named woman Bowler of the Year in consecutive years by the Bowling Writers' Association of America (BWAA). In 1968, she became the first woman bowler to win more than $10,000 in one season. A 1969 profile on Fothergill noted that, despite her tiny frame (5 feet 1 inch (155 cm), 110 pounds (50 kg)), she was able to throw a 16-pound (7.3 kg) ball with power and accuracy. The author compared her approach to "a hungry wolf after a lamb chop."

In 1966, she joined the professional bowlers tour, sponsored by Lincoln Lanes in Rhode Island, and finished third in the WIBC doubles tournament in New Orleans. She won her first tournament, the Professional Women's Bowling Association's Phoenix Women's Open, in March 1967, winning $1,850 in prize money. The following month, she tallied a record 2,409 in 12 games to win the women's division in the Sixth Annual Connecticut Cancer Bowlathon.

Fothergill was raised in North Attleboro, Massachusetts. She graduated from North Attleboro High School in 1963. Also in 1963, at age 18, she finished third in The Boston Globe's Ten Pin Tournament. She supported herself as a secretary at Walpole Lanes.

Dorothy Ann Fothergill (born c. 1945) is an American former left-handed ten-pin bowler. She was named the Woman Bowler of the Year in 1968 and 1969 and defeated the top men's competitors in exhibition play. She sued the Professional Bowlers Association in 1970 when her application to compete in men's tournaments was rejected. She was inducted into the Women's International Bowling Congress (WIBC) Hall of Fame (later merged into the United States Bowling Congress Hall of Fame) in 1980. She was also one of the charter inductees into the PWBA Hall of Fame in 1995.