Joe Penkala only played one season of baseball at Warren High School, as budgetary concerns had caused the cancellation of the sport.  Nevertheless, he walked on at Providence College and started at second base for four straight years.

In Little League Baseball Joe was, at varying times, the Rookie of the Year, the Home Run Champion, the Batting Champion, a two-time All Star, and a member of the Braves who won the league title in 1970.

Joe also played on a championship team in Babe Ruth Baseball, while being named to the All Stars three times in succession and winning the 1974 batting title with an average of .491.

At Warren High School he was a member of the 1975 undefeated Warren High football squad that captured the Class B Small title and won the Class B Super Bowl over East Greenwich.

In his senior year he captained the baseball, basketball, and football teams and received Eastern Division honors in baseball.

But it was in football that he had his greatest success.  He scored all twenty-one points in Pat Abbruzzi’s first (of many) “retirement games,” a 21-20 win over Tiverton, and was named All Class B Small.

He started for the Providence College baseball nine from 1979 to 1982. 

The team captured the University of South Florida Invitational Championship in 1980.  The next year he was named the school’s Defensive Player of the Year, while also hitting .367 in the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Association playoffs.  In his senior year he captained the Friars and had five game-winning hits.  The team won the Rhode Island Intercollegiate Championship as Joe scored four times in the title game and made it to the Eastern Collegiate playoffs where they were ousted by eventual National third-place finisher Maine.

After college Joe played in the Newport Sunset Baseball League from 1979 to 1990.  His Middletown team won three championships and came in second in 1986.  Joe was named to the All Star team in the four years that such a team was chosen.  The playoff batting leader at .571 in 1982, he was the league’s shortstop fielding leader in seven different years.

In 1985 Joe served as the assistant baseball coach for both Warren High School and Barrington Post 8’s American Legion team.  The next year he was the head coach of Roger Williams University’s baseball squad.

Pictures from Hall of Fame archives