Life-long sports fan: No surprise Jeanette Plotkowski's 'surprise' 100th birthday party was sports-themed

WAUWATOSA (WITI) -- She met her husband when they became pen pals during World War II! Since then, Jeanette Plotkowski has written plenty of history. She's celebrating a new century, just in time for the New Year!

"I don't like to be the center of attention. That I don't like," Jeanette Plotkowski said.

Plotkowski is too humble and sweet for all the fuss, but her friends at Harwood Place Retirement Community in Wauwatosa just couldn't resist. After all, it's not every day that somebody lives to be 100 years old!

"I never dreamed that they would do anything like this. Never," Plotkowski said.

It was quite the show! The Racing Sausages stopped by! The sports theme was fitting because Plotkowski is a life-long sports fan.

"I'm a Packers fan, Brewers and baseball, Badgers basketball, Badgers football," Plotkowski said.

Plotkowski, a Pennsylvania native, was never a couch potato. She got in the game!

"We used to play baseball out in the fields. We had a lot of fields. There weren't homes built up like it is today. There were a lot of empty lots. Baseball, catnip, hit the old stick -- you know, it was different," Plotkowski said.

Plotkowski's sports career continued through high school, where she played on the basketball team decades before women's sports became so prominent.

"In those days, basketball was different than it is today. We had six players on the team. We weren't allowed to go beyond the line. It was partitioned off. This part was for the two centers and the two guards," Plotkowski said.

Not only was the game different back then, so were the uniforms the girls wore.

"The uniform was one piece with bloomers, with the bottom part. They were green and white. They didn't have shorts like they do today that are open," Plotkowski said.

Fashion has changed in the boy's game too. Back in the day, from high school to the NBA, shorts were shorter!

"I didn't like those short shorts. To me, that kinda bothered me, but now they go right below the knee," Plotkowski said.

Plotkowski isn't afraid to shoot from the hip in these matters. You don't get to meet a Centenarian every day, so what's the key to Plotkowski's long-winning streak? Attitude, and you might say, she stays within herself.

"I do what I can. What I can't do, I don't make an issue out of it. Everybody asks me how I lived all these years. I say I try to be positive instead of negative," Plotkowski said.

So what did she think about the party?

"Whoever planned all this and brought all this, it was fantastic!" Plotkowski said.

Plotkowski says she worries that her 61-year-old daughter Janelle is working too hard to make sure she's okay. It just goes to show that even at 100, you never stop being a mom!