"Charging Amazons and fair invaders": the 1922 Dick, Kerr's ladies'' soccer tour of North America - sowing seed
Melling, A.
European Sports History Review 3: 155-180
2001
ISSN/ISBN: 1462-1495 PMID: 21046847 Document Number: 10407
On the 2 October 1922, the New York Times reported the match between Dick, Kerr's Ladies and the Hispanic immigrant team, CentroHispano F.C. The first casualty of the game was Nelson, the right fullback of the Hispanos, who 'keeled over as the Amazons charged down the field'. Nelson, like the rest of American society, was obviously not yet ready for the vigour of women's soccer. It would be over sixty years before the vision of Brooks, Frankland and Zelickman was realized. In 1999, Jacques M. Henry and Howard P. Comeaux estimated that over half the 18 million soccer players in America were women; which is probably the highest ratio in the world. Furthermore, there are now 22 co-ed soccer organizations across 14 states in the US. Since the Educational Amendments Act of 1972, women's soccer has developed rapidly in America and on a global scale is one of the fastest growing sports. Ironically, however, the growing popularity of soccer as a sport for American women and girls has sealed its fate with regard to ever becoming a national sport. According to J. Sugden, the ability of women and girls to succeed at soccer supports the American view that it is a game for 'second rate athletes, unable to contend with the masculine rigours of the home grown variety of football'. Sugden notes that issues of anti-foreign sentiment, class and gender roles still persist, stating that as long as soccer is 'viewed as a game for foreigners, rich white kids and women, its chances of becoming established as a mainstream professional sport [in America] are minimal'.
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