The Women's Professional American Football League (WPFL) was a women's professional

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

league in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. With teams across the United States, the WPFL had its first game in 1999 with just two original teams: the

Lake Michigan Minx A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much larger ...

and the

Minnesota Vixens The Minnesota Vixen is a professional women's football team based in the Twin Cities. The team has been known as the Minnesota Vixens and Minneapolis Vixens prior to being known as the Vixen (note lack of "s"). Established in 1999, the Vixen are ...

. Fifteen teams nationwide competed for the championship in 2006. Unlike the other

women's American football Women's gridiron football, more commonly known as women's tackle football, women's American football, women's Canadian football, or simply women's football, is a form of gridiron football (American or Canadian) played by women. Most leagues play ...

franchises, the WPFL operated as a

fall Autumn, also known as fall in American English and Canadian English, is one of the four temperate seasons on Earth. Outside the tropics, autumn marks the transition from summer to winter, in September (Northern Hemisphere) or March ( Southe ...

league and not a spring league.

History

In 1999 two businessmen, Carter Turner and Terry Sullivan, 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

and the

at the

Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome The Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome (commonly called the Metrodome) was a domed sports stadium located in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota. It opened in 1982 as a replacement for Metropolitan Stadium, the former home of the National Football League ...

in Minneapolis, Minnesota was a success and turned into a six-game exhibition tour across the country dubbed the “No Limits” Barnstorming Tour. The success of the Barnstorming Tour led to the first official WPFL season in 2000 with 11 teams competing nationwide. 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. 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; 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; changes to player/team compensation; and the moving of the start of the season from fall to summer.In this league it is okay to throw like a girl , Feb 9, 2001
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Championships

References

{{Women's gridiron football leagues Women's American football leagues

History

Championships

See also

References