Women's Professional Football League: Difference between revisions

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The '''Women's Professional Football League''' (WPFL) was the first and longest operating women's professional [[American football]] league in the [[United States of America|United States]]. With teams across the United States, the WPFL had its first game in 1999 with just two original teams: the [[Lake Michigan Minx]] and the [[Minnesota Vixens]]. Fifteen teams nationwide competed for the championship in 2006.

The league had been recognized in national media campaigns, in the book ''[[Atta Girl]]'', and even had a team (the [[New England Storm]]) that had a commercial relationship with an [[NFL]] team, the [[New England Patriots]].

In the early 1960s, [[women's liberation|many women]] thought that sports in the US were [[sexist]] and needed to shift in another direction, moving beyond the [[stereotype]] that women were passive. This sentiment formed the background for the women's football league that was started in order to prove that women had the power to do what men did, with hopes that people would enjoy women's football as much as they did men's. In 1965, the name changed to its WPFL incarnation. Since there were no college women's football teams in the US, most of their athletes came from [[basketball]], [[rugby football|rugby]], and association football ([[soccer]]). After a few years, the sport began to fade.

In1997 two businessmen, Carter Turner and Terry Sullivan,<ref>[http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0051,cagan,20845,3.html A League of Their Own, page 1 - News - Village Voice - age Voice<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> decided to research the feasibility of a professional women’s football league by gathering together top female athletes into two teams and playing an exhibition game in front of an audience.The first season was actually played in 1998 but the New England Storm who finished 0-6 claimed that the games were officiated unfairly. After losing to Houston 39-0 they filed a grievance against the league. The New England Storm won the grievance and had the season vacated and had the league hire new officials. Had the 1998 season counted,the Dallas Diamonds would have beat the Northern Ice in the championship 67-3. The game between the [[Lake Michigan Minx]] and the [[Minnesota Vixens]] at the [[Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome]] in Minneapolis, Minnesota was a success and turned into a six-game exhibition tour across the country<ref>[https://www.pbs.org/pov/pov2001/trueheartedvixens/thefilm.html P.O.V. - True-Hearted Vixens . The Film | PBS<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> dubbed the “No Limits” Barnstorming Tour.<ref>[http://www.girlstalksports.com/FOOTBALL/football.html NHL Football - Women’s Professional Football League – NFL for women - News by Girls Talk Sports<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>

The success of the Barnstorming Tour led to the first official WPFL season in 2000 with 11 teams competing nationwide.<ref>[http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2000/football-1213.html Campus cop tackles women's pro football - MIT News Office<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> This first season ended with some turmoil however; the regular season was shortened by several games, players were not given their promised $1,000,000 per-game salaries, and there were allegations regarding instability with some of the league's financial backers.<ref>[http://www.orlandoweekly.com/features/story.asp?id=2393 Orlando Weekly - Features Story - Stumbling, Bumbling, Tumbling<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>It was also claimed that multiple regular season games in the 2000 season were scripted to help the New England Storm make the playoffs.This was proven by multiple game saving penalties, and bad calls as the Storm finished the season with a strong record (6-0) but lost to the Florida Stingrays in the Championship 69-7

The WPFL rebounded the next year completing the 2001 season after several organizational changes. Notable changes included the departure of founders Sullivan and Turner (Turner then founded the [[Women's American Football League|WAFL]];<ref>[http://archive.salon.com/people/feature/2001/12/19/wafl/index2.html Women's football: Ready for prime time? | Salon People<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> restructure of the league by several WPFL team owners: Melissa Korpacz - New England Storm, Robin Howington - Houston Energy, and Donna Roebuck and Dee Kennamer - Austin Rage;<ref>http://www.newenglandstorm.com/team/index.html</ref> changes to player/team compensation; and the moving of the start of the season from fall to summer.<ref>[http://www.yaleherald.com/archive/xxxi/2001.02.09/sports/p29league.html In this league it is okay to throw like a girl | Feb 9, 2001<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>

! Year !! Champion !! Score !! Runner-Up

| align="center" | Houston Energy || align="center" | 130-7 || align="center" | Dallas Diamonds

| align="center" | Florida Stingrays || align="center" | 69-7 || align="center" | New England Storm

| align="center" | Houston Energy || align="center" | 87-0 || align="center" | Austin Rage

| align="center" | Houston Energy || align="center" | 156-7 || align="center" | Wisconsin Riveters

| align="center" | Florida Stingrays || align="center" | 53-4 || align="center" | New England Storm

| align="center" | Dallas Diamonds || align="center" | 68-0 || align="center" | Northern Ice

| align="center" | Dallas Diamonds || align="center" | 91-2 || align="center" | New York Dazzles

| align="center" | Florida Stingrays || align="center" | 73-1 || align="center" | Austin Rage

| align="center" | SoCal Scorpions || align="center" | 6-4|| align="center" | Houston Energy

|-

![[2008 WPFL season|2008]]

|align="center" |Dallas Diamonds|| align="center" |3-3|| align="center" | Florida Stingrays