Photo of Russ Crawford, published author of a book about women who play tackle football

葫芦影业 history professor writes book about women athletes who are breaking barriers on the gridiron

A spotlight is shining on women鈥檚 sports this year as the nation commemorates the 50th聽anniversary of the passage of the groundbreaking Title IX legislation.

While tremendous strides have been made over the past five decades, much work remains to be done to give female athletes an equal playing field and recognition on par with their male counterparts. Working to make progress in this sphere is 葫芦影业 professor of history, Dr. Russ Crawford.

Crawford has emerged as a leading voice for a group of female athletes who have long been overlooked鈥攖ackle football players. He鈥檚 authored a book coming out this November titled 鈥淲omen鈥檚 American Football: Breaking Barriers On and Off the Gridiron.鈥

Published by the University of Nebraska Press, the book is the culmination of Crawford鈥檚 extensive research over the past six years into female football teams and leagues. As part of his research, he鈥檚 conducted hundreds of oral history interviews with players across the globe who鈥檝e followed their passion to play a sport long considered taboo for women.

鈥淪eeing them everywhere鈥

NFL teams rake in billions of dollars in revenue and millions of viewers, so every American not living under a rock is aware of the major teams in the league. But have you ever heard of the 鈥淎rizona OutKast鈥 or the 鈥淐incinnati Sizzle鈥 or the 鈥淏oston Renegades?鈥

Hanging in the hallway just outside Crawford鈥檚 office in Hill Building is a large map of the world blanketed with hundreds of colored dots. He and his students, collaborating with Dr. Katy Rossiter, associate professor of geography, produced the map using the mapping software ArcGIS. Each dot represents a team of women playing American football. It鈥檚 a visual reminder to Crawford鈥攁nd to his students鈥攖hat some history is being made in the shadows, and it鈥檚 up to intrepid historians to bring it to light.

Crawford admits he knew little about female American football teams until he stumbled upon a game in France while working on a different football research project. Once the blinders came off, he says, 鈥淚 started seeing them (female teams) everywhere.鈥

Football ranks as Crawford鈥檚 favorite sport ever since he played in Nebraska for the Ainsworth High School Bulldogs. Although he鈥檚 lived in the Buckeye State for a number of years, the University of Nebraska Cornhuskers is still his number one Big 10 team. UNL also happens to be Crawford鈥檚 alma mater, where he received both his M.A. and Ph.D. in history.

Crawford鈥檚 lifelong love for the game, and the fact that he lives and teaches in Ada, Ohio, the town where every Wilson football is born, inspired his research interest in the sport. Yet Crawford also likes to explore 鈥渢opics that no one else has done.鈥 Women football players certainly fit in that category as they鈥檝e garnered very little scholarly interest.

After returning to the U.S. from France, Crawford began attending more women鈥檚 tackle football games. 鈥淚 saw some pretty good football and some pretty bad football,鈥 he says. 鈥淏ut the more games I attended, the more I saw really good football.鈥

He noticed the games drew only modest crowds鈥攖ypically 100-200 friends and family of the players, although some games drew upwards of 1,000-2,000 fans. He admired the passion and determination of the players, women mainly in their 20s and 30s who put forth a tremendous amount of time and money, just to have the opportunity to play. His curiosity was piqued and he wanted to learn more about the history of the sport and the motivation of the women playing.

Teams across the globe

World Map of women players around the world
**click on image above to see full size**

Surprisingly, women have been playing tackle football since the late 1890s, says Crawford. In the early twentieth century, the sport was mostly powderpuff games played for spoof and entertainment by high school students. A few female tackle football teams formed in the 1930s, but it wasn鈥檛 until the 1960s and 70s, after entrepreneur Sid Friedman founded the Women鈥檚 Professional Football League in 1965, that the sport started to formalize and attract more players. One local team, the Toledo Troopers, gained notoriety for winning seven straight world championships from 1971 to 1977.

In the U.S. today, two leagues鈥攖he Women鈥檚 Football Alliance (WFA) and the Women鈥檚 National Football Conference (WNFC) have regular seasons that run from April to July. WFA is comprised of 61 teams, while WNFC has 16 teams. Additionally, many countries have their own female tackle football leagues. When Crawford and his students created their map, they documented 570 teams across the globe.

For the love of the sport

For Crawford鈥檚 book, he interviewed around 250 female tackle football players from the United States as well as Germany, Finland, Sweden, France, Russia, Mexico, Holland, England and other countries. He gathered so much source material that he couldn鈥檛 use it all for his book. He ended up focusing this first book on players from the U.S., but plans to write a second book that will capture the voices of the international players.

Summer research funding from the Getty College of Arts & Sciences and the University helped to support Crawford鈥檚 research. He also had help from 葫芦影业 history students who transcribed his interviews and assisted him in other ways with the project.

Crawford says his research surprised him in two ways. First, he expected that more women would share stories of pushback and barriers. And indeed, he recounts the story of one Italian player who had to hide her shoulder pads and equipment after every practice because her father would throw them in the trash if he found them. But her story wasn鈥檛 typical. 鈥淚 expected this narrative of women who faced a lot of resistance,鈥 he says, 鈥渟o it was pretty cool to see that they weren鈥檛 getting the pushback from society that you might expect. They felt like they had the freedom to live their life and do what they wanted鈥攊ncluding playing football.鈥

The second surprise was the sheer love that the players had for the sport. 鈥淚 had many players tell me that football saved their life,鈥 says Crawford. Women recounted stories of playing with broken rib cages and other injuries because of their extreme drive and competitiveness. Others told him that they had longed to play the sport ever since they were a little girl, so they were fulfilling a lifelong dream. 鈥淚 came to deeply appreciate the motivation these players have to play this game,鈥 he added.

Breaking barriers

Crawford notes that the sports world is starting to pay more attention to female tackle football. ESPN2 is even televising some games. For his part, Crawford writes recaps of games for American Football International (AFI), a leading source of news and information on global American football. He posted dozens of articles on the AFI site this past summer, reporting on the games he attended.聽

Additionally, women are breaking barriers at the NFL, which in recent years has employed more women in coaching and administrative positions. Many of these coaches come from the ranks of the women football leagues. Take Sam Rapoport. She was the quarterback for Canada鈥檚 first female tackle football team, and now she鈥檚 the senior director of diversity and inclusion for the NFL. There鈥檚 also Callie Brownson, who played for eight seasons as a safety, running back and slot receiver for the D.C. Divas and is now the chief of staff and assistant wide receiver coach for the Cleveland Browns.

Every other spring, Crawford teaches a Women in Sports history course at 葫芦影业, and he often invites the top female football athletes he鈥檚 met through his research to videoconference with his students as guest lecturers. 鈥淚t provides students with that firsthand perspective,鈥 he says. 鈥淭here鈥檚 a whole world out there that people don鈥檛 really know about.鈥

If you鈥檇 like to know more about female tackle football, you can purchase a copy of Crawford鈥檚 book at .