Britni de la Cretaz - Hail Mary: The Rise and Fall of the National Womens Football League

Hail Mary tells the definitive story of the National Womens Football Leaguethe touchdowns, the fumbles, the passion, the power. These are stories that nearly vanishedor in some cases, were purposely erasedfrom footballs history, but through DArcangelo and de la Cretazs deep dive, theyre brought back to life in the voices of the players. Their truth and identity as Herricanes, Dandelions, Dolls, and Troopers is finally seen, their imprint on the game of football is indisputable.

Tony Reali, host of ESPNs Around the Horn

All too often, the history of womens sports lies buried beneath the surface, never seeing the light of recognition. DArcangelo and de la Cretaz do the historic work of bringing this story to life. In this vivid account of the rise and fall of the NWFL, they give us a much-needed record of the women who helped pave the way so we could all exist today. Its hard to imagine all the stories untold that led to the life I live todayIm grateful to know these women who blazed the trail I walked upon.

Layshia Clarendon, WNBA player

I greatly enjoyed Hail Mary . I found it to be not only educational, but also entertaining and uplifting. By forty pages in, Id begun trying to picture who was going to be cast to play what parts when they turn this thing into a movie.

Shea Serrano, New York Times bestselling author

DArcangelo and de la Cretaz graciously and painstakingly piece together the story of a rarely remembered league and the women whose love of football made the unlikely possible. Memories from countless players, plus photographs and old memorabilia, tell the story of a fight to play that was both unique to its time and repeated over and over in the decades since. The NWFL is an important part of the history of womens sports, and in telling its storyits successes and failuresthe authors offer a throughline from the gridiron gals of yesteryear to the female footballers of today.

Sarah Spain, host of ESPNs Spain & Company

Sport demands examination of its hidden histories, especially when involving groups of people that have been marginalized. In that vein, you are holding in your hands a book that will be regarded as a classic of the genre. In the hands of Britni de la Cretaz and Lyndsey DArcangelo, we are introduced to a world ninety-nine percent of sports fans dont know existed, and we are richer for it. Sports are for everyone, especially when met with fierce societal resistance.

Dave Zirin, author of A Peoples History of Sports in the United States

Copyright 2021 by Britni de la Cretaz and Lyndsey DArcangelo

Cover design by Pete Garceau

Cover image Rose B. Low

Cover copyright 2021 Hachette Book Group, Inc.

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First Edition: November 2021

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: De la Cretaz, Britni, author. | DArcangelo, Lyndsey, author.

Title: Hail Mary : the rise and fall of the National Womens Football League / Britni de la Cretaz and Lyndsey DArcangelo.

Description: First edition. | New York, N.Y. : Bold Type Books, 2021. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2021010467 | ISBN 9781645036623 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781645036616 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: National Womens Football League (U.S.)History. | Women football playersUnited StatesHistory. | FootballUnited StatesHistory.

Classification: LCC GV955.5.N37 D4 2021 | DDC 796.330820973dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021010467

ISBNs: 978-1-64503-662-3 (hardcover), 978-1-64503-661-6 (e-book)

E3-20210928-JV-NF-ORI

To every single woman who took the field as a member of the National Womens Football League, this book is for you.

Im proud of it. It was like I was some kind of pioneer or something. When I grew up there were only three careers we could have: nurse, teacher, or secretary. I never dreamed of playing pro football and yet I did, if only briefly.

Susan Hoxie, Los Angeles Dandelions

Joyce Johnson, LA Dandelions

Photo provided by Joyce Johnson, LA Dandelions

J ohn Unitas, Bart Starr, Roman Gabriel, Joe Willie Namath, wrote the infamous, hard-nosed sportswriter Bud Collins in the December 1967 Boston Globe . These are names you know, men you respect for their ability to handle a football as well as several words of English on a TV commercial. They are acceptable quarterbacks but they are sissies when you consider them against Marcella Sanborn, quarterback of the Cleveland Daredevils.

Whoit was fair to imagine all of Collinss readers askingwas this woman, or this team? Collins continued, praising Sanborn while deriding these legendary male football players: I mean, do they play defense? No. They sit on the bench and try to remember their lines for the next commercial, he wrote. But Marcella Sanborn has no time off to recover from the bruises and scratches inflicted by predatory linebackers. She plays safety on defense. She is a 60-minute woman, and that is why Mrs. Sanborn, a makeup wearing pro football player, gets my annual Athlete of the Year Award.

Marcella Sanborn was one of the first to try out for a new womens football team, founded in 1967. In between raising her sixteen-year-old daughter, Claudia, and the hours she put in as a supply supervisor at the Ohio Bell Company, the thirty-nine-year-old Clevelander saw an announcement in the paper and thoughtas so many women had before her Why not? Having grown up playing football with boys from her hometown of Ury, West Virginia, Sanborn figured she was tough enough to hold her own.

Others, like Sanborn, tried out and made the team, too. Each one was ready and willing to ditch her everyday attire for cleats, pads, and helmets, and gladly take the field.

Originally, the team ownerone Sid Friedman, a fifty-year-old talent agent and promoterimagined his players wearing tearaway jerseys and miniskirts. For him, the team was a barnstorming venture more than actually competition. Women like Sanborn and so many others answered Friedmans ad that fall, and the newspapers eagerly announced there was a gals team.

But though the Daredevils team was supposed to be a gimmick, something changed along the way. The players made it real.