WE ARE THE TROOPERS

The inspiring, little-known story of a powerful women’s professional football team in the 1970s.

In June 1971, Sid Friedman, a Cleveland entrepreneur, ran an ad in the Toledo Blade: “Okay girls, here’s your chance to be liberated. The rough and tumble football way.” In this exciting, informative resurrection of largely forgotten history, Guinan, who teaches high school English and film in Columbus, tells the story of the Toledo Troopers, a team that “would not only prove that women could compete in a traditionally male-dominated sport, but also they would define what it means to be a champion.” As the author shows, the ad appealed to women whose brothers and husbands played sports and earned college scholarships and decent salaries—while girls and women were unable to secure sports scholarships. Guinan does a fantastic job of delving into the lives of the women who player for the Troopers, coached by Bill Stout, a down-on-his-luck former high school football star who returned home each night to “two screaming children in diapers, a catalog of unpaid bills, and the emotional black hole of his marriage.” Stout worked with Carl Hamilton, a Black sheriff’s deputy and former defensive tackle, to choose the roster of amazing athletes who made up that near-flawless team. In June 1972, Richard Nixon signed into law Title IX, a milestone in women’s sports history. Guinan offers sympathetic, well-rounded portraits of the many athletes who benefitted, including the members of the Troopers, but he also chronicles the lingering inequality. For example, women earned $25 per game, while their male counterparts received annual salaries of six and seven figures. In 1973, the Troopers appeared on the Phil Donahue Show, and the host’s naïve, irritating question forms the crux of this well-researched book: “What would motivate a woman to play pro football?” The answer—the same thing that motivates men: love of sport. The author includes a list of Troopers players from 1971 to 1979.

Fabulous lost sports history for historians and sports fans alike.