Women's Professional Football League

Infobox sports league
logo=WPFL_logo.pngpixels=168px
caption=The WPFL logo
sport=American football
founded=1999
teams=15
country=USA
champion=SoCal Scorpions

The Women's Professional Football League (WPFL) is the original and longest operating women's professional American football league in the United States. Now 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 has been recognized in national media campaigns, in the book "Atta Girl", and even had a team (the New England Storm) that has a commercial relationship with an NFL team, the 2004 Super Bowl Champion New England Patriots. The Storm have since been expelled from the league.

Unlike the other women's American football franchises, the WPFL operates as a fall league and not a spring league.

History

In the early 1960s, 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 current incarnation. Since there were no college women's football teams in the US, most of their athletes came from basketball, rugby, and soccer. After a few years, the sport began to fade.

In 1999 two businessmen, Carter Turner and Terry Sullivan [ [http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0051,cagan,20845,3.html A League of Their Own, page 1 - News - Village Voice - Village Voice ] ] , 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 game between the Lake Michigan Minx and the Minnesota Vixens at the Metrodome in Minneapolis, Minnesota was a success and turned into a six game exhibition tour across the country [ [http://www.pbs.org/pov/pov2001/trueheartedvixens/thefilm.html P.O.V. - True-Hearted Vixens . The Film | PBS ] ] dubbed the “No Limits” Barnstorming Tour. [ [http://www.girlstalksports.com/FOOTBALL/football.html NHL Footbal - Women’s Professional Football League – NFL for women - News by Girls Talk Sports ] ]

The success of the Barnstorming Tour led to the first official WPFL season in 2000 with 11 teams competing nationwide. [ [http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2000/football-1213.html Campus cop tackles women's pro football - MIT News Office ] ] This first season ended with some turmoil however; the regular season was shortened by several games, players were not given their promised $100 per-game salaries, and there were allegations regarding instability with some of the league's financial backers. [ [http://www.orlandoweekly.com/features/story.asp?id=2393 Orlando Weekly - Features Story - Stumbling, Bumbling, Tumbling ] ]

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 WAFL [ [http://archive.salon.com/people/feature/2001/12/19/wafl/index2.html Women's football: Ready for prime time? | Salon People ] ] ; 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 [http://www.newenglandstorm.com/team/index.html] ; changes to player/team compensation; and the moving of the start of the season from fall to summer. [ [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 ] ]

Effects

Fifteen teams competed in the 2006 WPFL season. The league has hundreds of players and is growing, but the league is more "semi-pro" as all of the athletes do not earn enough money to make a living. However, the league still refers to them as professional athletes. Other leagues that connect to women's football include the United Football League, the Independent Women's Football League, the National Women's Football Association and the Women's Football League. Unfortunately, these individual leagues do not see eye-to-eye, so the possibility of forming one unified league is not likely.

Half of the teams that had played in the WPFL for the 2007 season have since defected to other leagues to begin play in 2009; many of them have moved to the IWFL, although some moved to the NWFA. Only six teams currently remain in the league.

Due to the efforts of these organizations, some women's teams are allowed to play in some of the million-dollar domes and arenas originally built for men's teams. Noted stadiums have included the Astrodome in Houston, Texas, and some of the highly facilitated places in Detroit, Michigan.

Teams

American Conference

*New Mexico Burn
*So Cal Scorpions

National Conference

*Houston Energy
*Indiana Speed
*Kentucky Valkyries
*Thee Toledo Reign

Status uncertain

*Empire State Roar (originally intended to move to IWFL, but instead is now up for sale)

Former teams

*Colorado Valkyries (2000 season only)
*Albany Ambush (withdrew from 2006 schedule)
*Tulsa Black Widows (withdrew from 2006 schedule)
*Austin Rage (withdrew from 2003 schedule)
*New England Storm (expelled)
*Pacific Blast (withdrew from 2003 schedule)
*Missouri Prowlers (folded)
*Florida Stingrays (folded)
*Wisconsin Riveters (expelled)
*Syracuse Sting 2001-2004
*Arizona Caliente
*Georgia Gladiators
*Lake Michigan Minx
*Long Beach Aftershock
*San Francisco Stingrays
*New York Dazzles
*Northern Ice
*New England Intensity (joined IWFL)
*Carolina Queens (joined IWFL)
*Cape Fear Thunder (joined IWFL)
*Connecticut Cyclones (joined IWFL)
*Dallas Diamonds (joined IWFL)
*Las Vegas Showgirlz (joined IWFL)
*Wisconsin Wolves (joined IWFL)
*Los Angeles Amazons (joined NWFA)
*Minnesota Vixen (joined NWFA)
*New Jersey Titans (joined NWFA)
*New York Nemesis (joined NWFA)

Championships

ee also

*Independent Women's Football League (IWFL)
*National Women's Football Association
*Women's American Football League (WAFL)
*American Football Women's League (AWFL)
*List of leagues of American football

References

External links

* [http://www.womensprofootball.com Official Home of the Women's Professional Football League]
* [http://www.iwflsports.com IWFL - The Women's League]
* [http://www.eteamz.com/LTFL/ Lady Tackle Football League]
* [http://www.wfleague.com/ Women's Football League]
* [http://www.nfl.com/ Official Home of the National Football League]
* [http://www.womentackle.com Women's Football Forums]