'Here's the football heroine': female American football players, 1890-1912

In the 1880s, educators at Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and the University of Pennsylvania codified American football, and the sport became popular on the campuses of both universities and high schools. Contrary to popular belief, it was not just male students who turned to football. Between 1890 and 1912, girls and women around the country began to play the hyper-masculine sport even as it gained notoriety for its violence and associated deaths. This paper analyses contemporary newspaper reports and explores women's attempts to play the American code. The paper argues that women played the game despite football's strong links with masculinity, although feminine ideals of the time constrained their participation. This paper also posits that women from all classes played this physical and dangerous sport, contradicting conventional wisdom regarding the sporting activities of middle- and upper-class women. It demonstrates that in some cases women played against male opposition, something noted football historian Michael Oriard stated was 'potentially more disruptive' to the masculine narrative of football. The paper demonstrates that media coverage was essentially accepting of these young women and explores the reasons for this positive reaction at a time when football was a site for men to prove their masculinity.