Joan Ingram won Canadian championships in two sports, softball and curling. She also won provincial championships in adult team competition for six consecutive decades. Her achievements on the softball diamond and the curling ice placed her in the final group of five athletes nominated for Manitoba Female Amateur Athlete of the 20th Century.

Ingram was born in Oakville where she played hockey and softball and started curling while in high school. The teenager played senior women’s softball in Brandon for a season and then joined the Winnipeg senior team, CUAC Blues. In 1957, CUAC won the provincial and Western Canadian championships. The provincial win began a string of Manitoba championships that lasted until the team disbanded after the 1973 season. CUAC won the first Canadian senior women’s championship in 1965 and represented Manitoba the next eight seasons. A catcher at the beginning and end of her career, Ingram anchored the team at shortstop and was an all-star for most of the championship run.

She won her first provincial women’s curling championship in 1967 playing third for Betty Duguid and the team went on to win the Canadian title. She represented Manitoba at third for Pat Brunsdon in 1969 and skipped her Fort Garry team to the Canadian final in 1973 and her team from Deer Lodge to third place in 1981. Playing out of the Thistle Business Girls club, her team won the Manitoba senior women’s crown in 1989, 1990, 1992 and 1993. Ingram was named all-star skip at the Canadian championship in 1990 when Manitoba was third and in 1993 when the team lost the final. In 2000, she played third on the Thistle team skipped by Dot Rose that won the provincial masters championship and finished second at the national competition. In 1989, Ingram was the second woman inducted into the Manitoba Curling Hall of Fame exclusively for curling accomplishments.