
Hail Mary
The Rise and Fall of the National Women's Football League
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Narrated by:
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Kimberly Austin
About this listen
In 1967, a Cleveland businessman had a brilliant idea: Why not start a women's football team?
It was conceived as a gimmick and a publicity stunt in the vein of the Harlem Globetrotters. He recruited women to compete as a traveling football troupe; much to his surprise, he learned that women really wanted to play — and play hard. Hail Mary is the story of the unlikely rise of the National Women's Football League and the players who loved a game that society told them they shouldn't be playing.
In 19 cities around the country, against the backdrop of second-wave feminism and the passage of Title IX, these athletes broke new barriers and showed adoring crowds what women were capable of physically. Thousands of people came to watch — perhaps to gawk at first but then, in the end, to cheer. Hail Mary is a rollicking chronicle of fearless women-players on the Detroit Demons, the Toledo Troopers, the LA Dandelions, and more — bringing us into the stadiums where they broke records, the small-town lesbian bars where they were recruited, and the backrooms where the league was conceived, and where it ended.
Hail Mary is a celebration of women athletes and their fight on and off the field — and a powerful story of the league that changed their lives and the course of women's sports.
©2021 Britni De La Cretaz, Lyndsey D'Arcangelo (P)2021 Dreamscape Media, LLCListeners also enjoyed...
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What listeners say about Hail Mary
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- D. Dennis
- 07-29-22
Story of women who paved the way for us today!
Amazing story! I loved it so much! I was born in 1968 and was all about participating in sports because my older brother and cousin were playing football and baseball at the time.
I remember in second grade when I found out there were professional women's football and softball teams. It changed my life. I remember feeling like, there's a bigger world out there that's justifying the things I want to do! I'm not a little 6-year-old freak in West Georgia!
Thank you to all the women who have paved this way for us to participate in all the sports, and all the careers, and all the lives that we wanted to lead!
And I held this until the end, but I wish somebody had told the narrator that "PAT", wasn't pronounced, "Pat"! My head exploded every single time!
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- PHILIP C.
- 05-16-22
A good story I knew nothing about
Interesting to here what has changed and what hasn't in women's sports over the decades. Worth your time even if you don't follow the sport now.
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