54-768: The Denver Rush are a women's American football team in the Extreme Football League ( X League ) based in Loveland, Colorado , a suburb of Denver . The Extreme Football League ( X League ) was announced in December 2019, as a successor to the Legends Football League (LFL). The announcement included the Rush, a successor to the LFL's Denver Dream . The X League's 2020 season was postponed, and
108-701: A Chicago snow storm to the Pottsville Maroons 21–7, the Cardinals found themselves in second place. Hoping to improve their record, they scheduled and won two hastily arranged games against weaker teams, the Milwaukee Badgers and the Hammond Pros . The ploy was within the NFL's rules at the time because of the open-ended schedule. Chicago finished the season with a record of 11–2–1. However,
162-541: A championship for 1925. Later, it was offered to the Cardinals, whose owner, Chris O'Brien , refused to accept the championship title for his team. He argued that his team did not deserve to take the title over a team which had beaten them fairly. It was only after the Bidwill family bought the Cardinals in 1933 that the franchise began to claim the 1925 title as its own. ( For more on the controversy, see 1925 NFL Championship controversy .) The Chicago Cardinals were one of
216-630: A front office assistant, took a quality control coaching position with the Buffalo Bills , making her the first permanent female coach in National Football League history. In 2020, Callie Brownson became the first woman to coach an NFL position group in a regular-season game when she filled in for the Cleveland Browns tight ends coach Drew Petzing . In 2013, Lauren Silberman became the first woman to try out at
270-526: A men's social club in New York set up a scrimmage between two teams of five women each, wearing the colors of Yale and Princeton , outside the casino at Sulzer's Harlem River Park, as entertainment before a masked ball. The Sun reported that after only a few plays, the local police captain had to step in to halt the event, after the crowd of men watching the women tackling each other started pushing, and it looked like someone could get crushed. In 1897,
324-427: A movement began among the owners of the NFL to follow the racist example of professional baseball and in 1927 every African-American player was out of the league, with the sole exception of Duke Slater. The color ban faced by Slater and other black players was not ironclad, however, and four other African-American players managed to draw salaries in the NFL during short careers interspersed from 1928 through 1933. Slater
378-638: A person who holds another position on the team), while the best known female college football players were all placekickers , with all having primarily played women's soccer prior to converting . Patricia Palinkas is on record as being the first female professional football player, having played for the Orlando Panthers of the Atlantic Coast Football League in 1970. Palinkas was a placekick holder for her placekicker husband. On October 18, 1997, Liz Heaston became
432-586: A scoreless tie against the Staleys. Since the Pros merely had to tie the game in order to win the title, they could afford to play not to lose. Had the Staleys not lost to the Cardinals, they would have gone into that fateful game with an 11–0–2 record, 6–0–2 in league play. As it was, it all but assured that the Staleys/Bears and Cardinals would be intense rivals. The two teams played to a tie in 1921 , when
486-491: A woman; she later went on to become an Olympic weightlifter. Brittanee Jacobs is the first female football coach at the collegiate level. She helped coach safeties at Central Methodist University during the 2012 season. Welter became the first female coach at the professional level when she took a preseason position with the Arizona Cardinals in 2015; a year later, Kathryn Smith , who had spent several years as
540-505: Is a form of gridiron football (American or Canadian) played by women. Most leagues play by similar rules to the men's game. Women primarily play on a semi-professional or amateur level in the United States. Very few high schools or colleges offer the sport solely for women and girls. However, on occasion, it is permissible for a female player to join the otherwise male team. Women and girls were playing tackle football not long after
594-448: The 1960 season in a move which also blocked St. Louis as a potential market for the new AFL, which began play the same year. Despite the presence of a baseball team already named the St. Louis Cardinals , the football team kept its name upon relocation there, and would be referred to as " the football Cardinals " until it departed for Arizona following the 1987 season . italics = played
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#1732802310368648-572: The Charleston , and the team they faced consisted of two old men. Furthermore, there is no evidence to suggest that this was more than a one-time event, or that other NFL franchises had similar ladies' "teams". A few women's football leagues emerged in the 1930s, including one in Ohio in 1934 and another in Los Angeles in 1939, but were short-lived. The women's game started to formalize in
702-573: The Chicago Bears , were founding members of the National Football League in 1920. Both teams are the only two surviving teams from that era. The Bears and the Cardinals also developed a rivalry during those NFL first years. After some irregular campaigns during the 1950s, the Cardinals were largely overshadowed by the Bears in Chicago and almost fell into bankruptcy. After some efforts to buy
756-619: The Missouri Tigers with a 30-yard squib kick on November 28, 2020. The term "Power Five" was not in use when Katie Hnida became the first woman to score in an NCAA Division I-A game in 2003; Hnida played at the Mountain West Conference , which did not have Automatic Qualifying status in the Bowl Championship Series . ) Jennifer Welter became the first female skill position player at
810-616: The NFL Regional Scouting Combine (2013). Silberman tried out for the NFL after playing club soccer in college and taking up kicking footballs as a hobby several months before the tryout. During her tryout, she met with medical staff to address a leg injury after making two kicks, and did not complete the remaining kicks. The world governing body for American football associations, the International Federation of American Football (IFAF), held
864-626: The NFL championship that year , featured "Lady Yellow Jackets" as halftime entertainment during their game against the Chicago Cardinals , in front of an audience of 8,000. Although the NFL connection has led many to pinpoint this event as the start of women's football, a detailed account in the Philadelphia Public Ledger makes it clear that it was nothing more than a comedy act. The eleven Lady Yellow Jackets danced
918-651: The Ohio and New York circuits that had also emerged as top football centers prior to the league's founding. In 1920 , the team became a charter member of the American Professional Football Association (later renamed the National Football League (NFL) in 1922 ), for a franchise fee of $ 100. The Cardinals and the Chicago Bears (the latter founded as the Decatur Staleys before moving to Chicago in 1921 and being renamed
972-584: The Spanish flu pandemic . It resumed operations later in the year (one of the few teams to play that year), and has since operated continuously. At the time of the founding of the modern National Football League, the Cardinals were part of a thriving professional football circuit based in the Chicago area. Teams such as the Decatur Staleys , Hammond Pros , Chicago Tigers and the Cardinals had formed an informal loop similar to, and generally on par with,
1026-603: The Staleys won all but two games, thus the Cardinals came within 1 point of costing the Staleys a second consecutive championship in the league's first two years of existence. In 1922 , the Staleys, now renamed the Bears , went 9–3–0, losing to the Cardinals twice. The Bears still edged the Cardinals for second place in the league, but those losses dashed all hopes of the Bears repeating as champions. In 1923 and 1924 ,
1080-558: The University of New Mexico Lobos on August 30, 2003. She later became the second professional player, when she signed with the Fort Wayne FireHawks . Julie Harshbarger , a placekicker for numerous Chicago-based Continental Indoor Football League teams, became the first female player to win a most valuable player award in an otherwise all-male league in 2014. By kicking five field goals that season, she earned
1134-411: The "Morgan Athletic Club". O'Brien later moved them to Chicago's Normal Park and renamed them the "Racine Normals", since Normal Park was located on Racine Avenue in Chicago. In 1901, O'Brien bought used maroon uniforms from the University of Chicago , the colors of which had by then faded, leading O'Brien to exclaim, "That's not maroon; it's cardinal red!" It was then that the team changed its name to
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#17328023103681188-403: The "Racine Street Cardinals". The original Racine Street Cardinals team disbanded in 1906 mostly for lack of local competition. A professional team under the same name formed in 1913, claiming the previous team as part of their history. As was the case for most professional football teams in 1918, the team was forced to suspend operations for a second time due to World War I and the outbreak of
1242-566: The 1960 through 1987 seasons. Roots can be traced to 1898, when Chris O'Brien established an amateur Chicago-based athletic team, the Morgan Athletic Club . O'Brien later moved them to Chicago's Normal Park and renamed them the Racine Normals , then adopting the maroon color from the University of Chicago uniforms. In the 1900s the Cardinals became part of a professional circuit in Chicago. The Cardinals, along with
1296-465: The 1960s, after entrepreneur Sid Friedman founded the Women's Professional Football League in 1965. Leagues play American football unless otherwise noted. Of the women who have seen action in men's college and pro football, almost all have been in special teams positions that are protected from physical contact . The first professional player was a placekick holder (a position usually occupied by
1350-563: The Bears got the better of the Cardinals all three times the two teams played. But in 1925 , the Bears went 0–1–1 against the Cardinals with the tie meaning the Cardinals were only a 1 ⁄ 2 game in front of the Pottsville Maroons heading into their fateful 1925 showdown. Thus, in the first six years of the NFL's existence, the Bears-Cardinals games had a direct impact on the league championship 4 times. The Bears and Cardinals each took home 1 title during that span. But
1404-487: The Bears nearly cost the Cardinals their title, the Cardinals nearly cost the Bears their title, and had it not been for the Cardinals' tenacity against the Bears, the Bears very well might have won two more. The Bears were a dominant team against everyone but the Cardinals in the league's early years. From 1920 to 1925, the Canton Bulldogs , champions in 1922 and 1923, beat the Bears just 2 times and no other team in
1458-558: The Bidwills were only willing to sell a minority stake in the team while maintaining controlling interest. Having failed in their separate efforts to buy the Cardinals, Hunt, Adams, Howsam and Winter joined forces to form the American Football League . Suddenly faced with a serious rival, the NFL quickly came to terms with the Bidwills, engineering a deal that sent the Cardinals to St. Louis, Missouri beginning with
1512-408: The Cardinals snapped their long losing streak (an NFL record 29 games, dating back to the 1942 season and including their lone season as Card-Pitt) by beating the Bears 16–7. It was their only victory of the season. In 1946, the team finished 6–5 for the first winning season in eight years. In 1947, the NFL standardized on a 12-game season. This would be the most celebrated year in Cardinals history as
1566-571: The Cardinals were nearly forgotten in Chicago, being completely overshadowed by the Bears. Attendance at Cardinals games was sparse. With the team almost bankrupt, the Bidwills decided to cede Chicago to the Bears and move the Cardinals to another city. However, the NFL demanded a hefty relocation fee which the Bidwills were unwilling and/or unable to pay. Needing cash, the Bidwills entertained offers from various out-of-town investors, including Lamar Hunt , Bud Adams , Bob Howsam and Max Winter . However, these negotiations came to nothing, probably because
1620-463: The Cardinals' 7–6 victory over the Staleys in their first meeting of the season, each team scored a touchdown on a fumble recovery, with the Staleys failing their extra point try. The Cardinals' defeat of the Staleys proved critical, since George Halas 's Staleys went on to a 10–1–2 record overall, 5–1–2 in league play. The Akron Pros were the first ever league champions; they finished with an 8–0–3 record, 6–0–3 in league play, ending their season in
1674-430: The Cardinals, a group of investors including Lamar Hunt , Bud Adams , Bob Howsam and Max Winter , joined forces to form the American Football League to compete with National Football League. The Cardinals would later move to St. Louis, Missouri , beginning with the 1960 season . In 1898, Chicago painting and building contractor Chris O'Brien established an amateur Chicago -based athletic club football team named
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1728-599: The Chicago Staleys, then in 1922 being renamed the Chicago Bears) are the only charter members of the NFL still in existence, though the Green Bay Packers , which joined the league in 1921, existed prior to the formation of the NFL. The person keeping the minutes of the first league meeting, unfamiliar with the nuances of Chicago football, recorded the Cardinals as from Racine, Wisconsin . The team
1782-455: The NFL defeated the Bears more than once over that entire 6-year span... except for the Cardinals. The Cardinals battled the Bears to 4–4–2 split between 1920 and 1925 and established the NFL's first rivalry. The 1925 season ended in perhaps the greatest controversy in professional football history. In those days, there was no fixed schedule nor any playoff games. The championship was decided by winning percentage. At season's end, after losing in
1836-681: The San Francisco Grays played against the Oakland Browns, winning 20 to 8, in a women's football game played at the Velodrome under rugby rules. On December 8, 1922, Maui High School in the Territory of Hawaii held the first of two girls' football games that month with a team of sophomores and seniors playing against a team of juniors and freshman. The Maui News described it as "a game which afforded much amusement to
1890-700: The United States was in 1892, when students at the Philadelphia School of Design for Women played with "modified tackling rules". Starting in the 1890s, there were also numerous articles alluding to students at women's colleges playing football, at Wellesley College in Massachusetts and at Vassar College in New York. However, sports historian Katie Taylor questions the veracity of these accounts, and suggests that any games that did take place at Seven Sisters schools during these years were informal rather than competitive. On November 21, 1896,
1944-576: The few NFL teams to host African-American players in the 1920s—most notably Duke Slater . After the folding of the first American Football League after its lone season, Slater, against all odds, successfully joined the Chicago Cardinals of the National Football League. Not only was Slater pro football's first African-American linemen, he was also one of the NFL's most outstanding linemen of his era. In 1928, he encouraged
1998-436: The field. This was the first NFL championship to be televised. The next year, Violet Bidwill married St. Louis businessman Walter Wolfner, and the Cardinals fell to 6–5–1. The 1950s were a dismal period for the Cardinals, with records of 5–7 (1950), 3–9 (1951), 4–8 (1952), 1–10–1 (1953), 2–10 (1954), 4–7–1 (1955), 7–5 (1956; the best year of the decade), 3–9 (1957), 2–9–1 (1958), and 2–10 (1959). With just 33 wins in ten seasons,
2052-523: The first Women's World Cup in Stockholm, Sweden, in 2010. Six nations participated in the inaugural event: Austria, Canada, Finland, Germany, Sweden, and the United States. The United States won the gold by beating Canada, 66–0. The 2013 World Championship, in Finland, was held from 30 June 2013 to 7 July 2013. The United States won gold again, beating Sweden 84-0 and Germany 107–7 in order to make it to
2106-601: The first time Spain has staged the World Championships which have been held since 1998. Normally conducted every two years, Denmark was scheduled to host the 2020 edition only for it to be cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic. Chicago Cardinals The professional American football team now known as the Arizona Cardinals previously played in Chicago, Illinois , as the Chicago Cardinals from 1898 to 1959 before relocating to St. Louis, Missouri , for
2160-507: The first woman to play and score in a college football game , kicking two extra points . Prior to this game, female athletes at Duke and Louisville had come close to playing in a game but did not. In 2001, Ashley Martin became the second female athlete to score in a college football game , this time in the NCAA . In 2003, Katie Hnida became the first woman to score in an NCAA Division I-A game. She accomplished this as placekicker for
2214-619: The gold medal match with Canada, whom they beat 64–0. In the 2017 IFAF Women's World Championship , held in Canada, the six teams invited were; Australia, Canada, Finland, Great Britain, Mexico and the United States. The United States continued their dominance, claiming gold, while Canada and Mexico won silver and bronze respectively. IFAF has confirmed Palma, located on the Spanish island of Mallorca, Spain as host for 2021 IFAF Flag Football World Championship from October 6 to 10 2021. It will be
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2268-599: The league also did not operate during 2021, amid the COVID-19 pandemic . The Rush first competed during the 2022 X League season ; they lost both of their regular season games, to the Seattle Thunder and Atlanta Empire , and did not advance to the postseason. Women%27s American football Women's gridiron football , more commonly known as women's tackle football , women's American football , women's Canadian football , or simply women's football ,
2322-599: The league sanctioned them because a Chicago player, Art Folz , had hired four Chicago high school football players to play for the Milwaukee Badgers under assumed names to ensure a Cardinals victory. Meanwhile, because Pottsville had played an unauthorized exhibition game in Philadelphia against the University of Notre Dame All-Stars, the Maroons were stripped of the title. The League decided not to award
2376-465: The male professional level by playing as a running back in the Texas Revolution in 2014. To date, no women have ever played a line position above the high school level. Holley Mangold , whose brother Nick played several years in the NFL and who herself played as a lineswoman in high school, declined to further pursue football in college, fearing she had no chance to play professionally as
2430-559: The masculine element", but also noted that "The Hi girls proved that when it comes to grit, they're there with the goods." In 1925, a woman's football game played at San Jose State Teachers' College between two teams drawn from the school's gymnasium classes was covered by the Associated Press and The New York Times. On November 6, 1926, the Frankford Yellow Jackets of Philadelphia, who went on to win
2484-517: The season he had beaten the Chicago Rockets of the upstart All-America Football Conference for the rights to Trippi. This signing is generally acknowledged as the final piece in the championship puzzle. The next season saw the Cardinals finish 11–1 and again play in the championship game, but lost 7–0 in a rematch with the Eagles , played in a heavy snowstorm that almost completely obscured
2538-451: The sport was invented in the 1880s, often in educational settings. For over 70 years, however, female involvement in football was reported in the media as a novel "spectacle". According to The Women's Football Encyclopedia , during this period, "powder bowl" events were "unusual and nonrecurring, and they were universally treated by the press as more farce than competitive football." The first recorded instance of women playing football in
2592-441: The team from O'Brien in 1929 . In 1932 the team was purchased by Charles Bidwill , then a vice president of the Chicago Bears . The team has been under the ownership of the Bidwill family since then. In 1944 , owing to player shortages caused by World War II , the Cardinals and Pittsburgh Steelers merged for one year and were known as the " Card-Pitt ", or derisively as the "Carpets" as they were winless that season. In 1945,
2646-469: The team to sign Harold Bradley Sr. , who became the NFL's second black lineman. Slater and Bradley played alongside each other in the first two games of the 1928 season. A steel plate in Bradley's leg, due to a childhood injury, contributed to Bradley ending his NFL career after only two games—the shortest among the 13 African American players who played in the NFL before World War II. Between 1926 and 1927
2700-400: The team went 9–3, beating Philadelphia in the championship game 28–21 with their " Million Dollar Backfield ", which included quarterback Paul Christman , halfback Charley Trippi , halfback Elmer Angsman , and fullback Pat Harder , piling up 282 rushing yards. However, Bidwill was not around to see it; he had died before the start of the season, leaving the team to his wife Violet . Prior to
2754-491: The time of his retirement in 1931, Slater had achieved All-Pro status a total of six times. During his NFL career Slater never missed a game because of injury, starting in a total of 96 of the 99 games he played between the AFL and NFL. The Cardinals posted a winning record only twice in the 20 years after their 1925 championship ( 1931 and 1935 ); including 10 straight losing seasons from 1936 to 1945 . Dr. David Jones bought
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#17328023103682808-504: The title of special teams player of the year, leading all kickers in the league in scoring; with a career spanning seven seasons, Harshbarger's career was the longest documented of any woman playing in a predominantly men's professional league. In 2020, Sarah Fuller became the first woman to play in a Power Five football game when she took the opening kickoff of the second half of the Vanderbilt Commodores ' game against
2862-465: Was once again the only black player in the league in 1929. On November 28, 1929, Slater participated in an NFL record as a lineman in front of Ernie Nevers in a game in which he scored six rushing touchdowns in a 40–6 victory over the Chicago Bears. Slater played all 60 minutes of the contest, alternating between the offensive and defensive lines as well as participating on special teams. By
2916-544: Was renamed the "Chicago Cardinals" in 1922 after a team actually from Racine, Wisconsin (the Horlick-Racine Legion ) entered the league. That season the team moved to Comiskey Park . The Staleys and Cardinals played each other twice in 1920 as the Racine Cardinals and the Decatur Staleys, making their rivalry the oldest in the NFL. They split the series, with the home team winning in each. In
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