A four-month job as a summer intern turned into a 43-year career at The Windsor Star for Mary Caton.

A versatile story-teller, Caton covered local news but her passion was rooted in 34 years writing sports.

With Detroit nearby, she reported on the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, PGA, LPGA, interviewing the likes of Barry Sanders, Justin Verlander, Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan and Wayne Gretzky. Highlights included the ’84, ‘12 World Series and the 2004 Ryder Cup.

Locally, Caton shared the stories of gifted athletes from high school, club, college and university. She told the emotional journey of many OFSAA gold medalists, the first coming in 1981 (Lowe’s boys’ soccer).  

Reporting on the UWindsor Lancers included a run of five straight CIS national women’s basketball titles (2011-15).    Honoured as the first female recipient of the OUA’s Media Award (’09-’10), she was nationally recognized with the CIS Fred Sgambati Media Award (2012).

  Caton covered the first-ever (1980) Pan Am Junior Games.   

She was a high school correspondent for the Essex Free Press while also playing badminton, basketball and volleyball for the Massey Mustangs. In Grade 13, she won a Dawson Memorial student/athlete scholarship. At Ryerson Polytechnical Institute, Caton played two years of varsity volleyball, switched to basketball in her final year (1979), was named team MVP and won RPI’s Dobson Trophy for greatest contribution to sport and campus.

As a left-handed shortstop, Caton played on Windsor’s first women’s fastball travel team in the Michigan-Ohio league. She was inducted into the Windsor Fastpitch Softball Hall of Fame (2020) and now joins the builders’ category of the Windsor/Essex County Sports Hall of Fame.