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Ohio is where the American Professional Football Association was founded and where the Pro Football Hall of Fame is located, but there is another, less-known aspect of the state's football history. The Toledo Troopers, an all-women’s team, dominated the gridiron during the 1970s, winning the Women's Professional Football League (WPFL) championship and then the National Women's Football League (NWFL) championship an impressive seven times. Ohio native Guinan chronicles the rise and fall of the two women's leagues with a focus on the Troopers' coach, Bill Stout, and the team's diverse cast of athletes, including star running back Linda Jefferson, the first Black woman inducted into the Semi-Pro Football Hall of Fame. These women played with passion, broke barriers, and risked ridicule and alienation from their families, not to mention career-ending injuries. Coinciding with the fiftieth anniversary of Title IX and a companion documentary with the same title, this eye-opening account introduces readers to a special sisterhood that made history and defied gender norms.

Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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. Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

The inspiring, little-known story of a powerful womens professional football team in the 1970s.In June 1971, Sid Friedman, a Cleveland entrepreneur, ran an ad in the Toledo Blade: Okay girls, heres 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 salarieswhile 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 sheriffs 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 womens 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 hosts nave, irritating question forms the crux of this well-researched book: What would motivate a woman to play pro football? The answerthe 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. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Publishers Weekly
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An obscure but significant chapter in American women’s professional sports comes to dazzling life in essayist Guinan’s debut. Drawing from interviews with players, coaches, and referees from the National Women’s Football League, Guinan recounts the extraordinary rise of the Toledo Troopers, deemed the “winningest team in professional football history” by the Pro Football Hall of Fame for their seven consecutive championships from 1971 to 1977. But as Guinan meticulously relates, that success was hard-won, not least because the team grew out of the sexist vision of National Women’s Football League founder Sid Friedman, who “courted investors with a question: ‘What’s better than watching some beautiful women play football?’ ” Despite being underestimated, the National Women’s Football League had some serious athletes, many of whom Guinan skillfully profiles, including Troopers star running back Linda Jefferson, womenSports magazine’s first Female Athlete of the Year, and quarterback Lee Hollar, who’d worked in a glass manufacturing plant before finding stardom. While Lyndsey D’Arcangelo and Britni de la Cretaz’s Hail Mary: The Rise and Fall of the National Women’s Football League gave this overlooked moment in history its due, Guinan’s account burns brighter in its intimate rendering of the players behind the league. Feminists and football fans alike will find much to appreciate. (Aug.)