We Are the Troopers: The Women of the Winningest Team in Pro Football History

by Stephen Guinan

Overview

Discover the unlikely story of the Toledo Troopers, the winningest team in the National Women's Football League, who won seven league championships in the 1970s—and gain full access to the players and key figures in the organization.

Amid a national backdrop of the call to pass the Equal Rights Amendment, the National Women’s Football League was founded as something of a gimmick. However, the league’s star team, the Toledo Troopers, emerged to challenge traditional gender roles and amass a win-loss record never before or since achieved in American football. The players were housewives, factory workers, hairdressers, former nuns, high school teachers, bartenders, mail carriers, pilots, and would-be drill sergeants. Black, white, Latina. Mothers and daughters and aunts and sisters. But most of all, they were athletes who had been denied the opportunity to play a game they were born to play.
 
Before the protests and the lobbyists, before the debates and the amendments, before the marches and the mandates, there was only an obscure advertisement in a local Midwestern paper and those who answered it, women such as Lee Hollar, the only woman working the line at the Libbey glass factory; Gloria Jimenez, who grew up playing sports with her six brothers; and Linda Jefferson, one the greatest, most accomplished athletes in sports history. Stephen Guinan grew up in Toledo pulling for his hometown football team, and—in the innocence of youth—did not realize at the time what a barrier-breaking lost piece of history he was witnessing. We Are the Troopers shines light on forgotten champions who came together for the love of the game.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780306846939
Publisher:	Hachette Books
Publication date:	08/30/2022
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	645,101
Product dimensions:	5.80(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Stephen Guinan, originally from Toledo, Ohio, is a writer and high school English and film teacher in Columbus. An Ohio State MFA recipient in fiction writing, he has had short stories and non-fiction published in The Massachusetts Review, The Green Mountains Review,The South Carolina Review, and other magazines. He is also the recipient of the Individual Excellence Award from the Ohio Arts Council for his fiction.
 

Table of Contents

Author's Note ix

Prologue xiii

Part I

Chapter 1 The Great Black Swamp 3

Chapter 2 The Promoter 17

Chapter 3 That Kind of Character 23

Chapter 4 Chaos 31

Chapter 5 The Compromise 42

Chapter 6 First Down 47

Chapter 7 They're Football Players 58

Chapter 8 "They Can't Catch Me, Momma!" 73

Part II

Chapter 9 Ownership 101

Chapter 10 World Champions 112

Chapter 11 The Bond 121

Chapter 12 The World's Greatest Football Player 141

Chapter 13 Miracle 156

Chapter 14 The Brawl 163

Chapter 15 Obstacle 180

Chapter 16 The Unthinkable 189

Part III

Chapter 17 Showdown 207

Chapter 18 Deadlock 225

Chapter 19 Blizzard 238

Chapter 20 Angels in the Backfield 244

Chapter 21 The Return 253

Chapter 22 Broken Band 258

Chapter 23 The Women of Tomorrow 263

Epilogue 273

The Toledo Troopers 1971-1979 275

The Coaches 278

In Memoriam 278

Acknowledgments 279

Sources 283

Index 289

Editorial Reviews

05/16/2022

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.)

Publishers Weekly

An absolute treat….The story of the long-forgotten (if ever remembered) Toledo Troopers, a woman’s football team that dominated the land for a good decade. Guinan is a fabulous writer, and his joy dances from page to page.”—Jeff Pearlman

“We Are The Troopers is the story of a group of game-changing women from all walks of life who came together to leverage the power of sports to influence the gender discussion and inspire their generation and future generations.”—Billie Jean King

“Stephen Guinan has written an important book detailing a crucial time and place in women’s sports history. I grew up in Toledo following the Troopers. This book is a wonderful walk down memory lane for me, and a compelling story about trailblazing women who broke barriers and inspired a generation of girls and women to follow their dreams.”—Christine Brennan, author of Best Seat in the House and Inside Edge

"Women's football has been drawn out of the shadows of history to some degree in recent years, but We Are the Troopers breathes true life into that history through its focus on the league's best team, its breakout star Linda Jefferson, and her groundbreaking teammates. By showing us the game through the eyes of the women who played it, Guinan brings us closer to that time and that action than a mere chronicle ever could and ensures that this unique chapter in sports history will never be lost."—Craig Calcaterra, author of Rethinking Fandom

“Utterly surprising and exhaustively researched, We Are the Troopers manages to be both lovingly nostalgic and reflective of the current moment. This is a story about the American obsession with football that is, at its heart, a story about the stubborn persistence of the American dream.”—Michael Weinreb, author of Season of Saturdays: A History of College Football in 14 Games

"An essential book on one of the most dominant teams of all time. I'm thankful Guinan has brought the story to light, writing with elegance and urgency to tell the story of the Troopers beautifully. I won't forget this team."—Mirin Fader, New York Times bestselling author of Giannis

"An incredible story."—Buzzfeed

“The inspiring, little-known story of a powerful women’s professional football team in the 1970s….In this exciting, informative resurrection of largely forgotten history, Guinan…tells the story of the Toledo Troopers… [and] does a fantastic job of delving into the lives of the women who play…. Fabulous lost sports history for historians and sports fans alike.”

—Kirkus Reviews (starred)

“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.”—Booklist

“An obscure but significant chapter in American women’s professional sports comes to dazzling life in essayist Guinan’s debut…Feminists and football fans alike will find much to appreciate.”—Publishers Weekly

“We Are the Troopers is a well-written and engaging ode to these women who made history on the gridiron and in the hearts of every little girl who wondered to what heights they could soar.”—G-pop.net

“An excellent addition to the field…. Guinan has written an epic saga of the Troopers…. His prose not only tells the story of a football team, but it also grabs the reader and carries them from the formation of the team to its decline…. Guinan writes with the style of a modern-day Grantland Rice…. Guinan’s book should appeal to football fans everywhere. His descriptions of the player’s backstories provide a window, often in the words of the athletes themselves, into a past when women had to struggle to play sports of any kind, let alone football…. We Are the Troopers is a compelling read.”—Russ Cawford, USSportHistory.com

“Amy Landon’s strong narration anchors this in-depth history of the Toledo Troopers….Landon balances the author’s appreciation for the players’ tenacity and toughness, skill and sacrifice with a clear-eyed examination of the demanding physicality and business sides of the sport.…Landon’s light characterizations emphasize the diverse personalities of the players, including Linda Jefferson, Lee Hollar, and Pam Schwartz, who shined on and off the field. This solid production is a welcome addition to American sports history.”—AudioFile (audiobook review)

From the Publisher

★ 2022-06-17
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.

Kirkus Reviews

Amy Landon’s strong narration anchors this in-depth history of the Toledo Troopers, a dominant, Ohio-based women’s football team during the short-lived era of the National Women’s Football League. Landon balances the author’s appreciation for the players’ tenacity and toughness, skill and sacrifice with a clear-eyed examination of the demanding physicality and business sides of the sport. Led by coaches Bill Stout and Carl Hamilton, the team played across the Midwest, South, and East Coast in the 1970s. Emerging ahead of Title IX, the league eventually folded without enough financial and promotional support. Landon’s light characterizations emphasize the diverse personalities of the players, including Linda Jefferson, Lee Hollar, and Pam Schwartz, who shined on and off the field. This solid production is a welcome addition to American sports history. J.R.T. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine

JANUARY 2023 - AudioFile

Amy Landon’s strong narration anchors this in-depth history of the Toledo Troopers, a dominant, Ohio-based women’s football team during the short-lived era of the National Women’s Football League. Landon balances the author’s appreciation for the players’ tenacity and toughness, skill and sacrifice with a clear-eyed examination of the demanding physicality and business sides of the sport. Led by coaches Bill Stout and Carl Hamilton, the team played across the Midwest, South, and East Coast in the 1970s. Emerging ahead of Title IX, the league eventually folded without enough financial and promotional support. Landon’s light characterizations emphasize the diverse personalities of the players, including Linda Jefferson, Lee Hollar, and Pam Schwartz, who shined on and off the field. This solid production is a welcome addition to American sports history. J.R.T. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine

JANUARY 2023 - AudioFile