The team grew from strength to strength, playing most of the home games at Preston North End.” “Dick, Kerr Ladies raised money for the soldiers of the local hospital, Preston’s Moor Park Military Hospital. Women were playing football as part of the war effort to raise money for people affected by the war.
Speaking to The Game Changers podcast, Gail Newsham, the author of ‘In a League of their Own’ which tells the story Dick, Kerr Ladies, said: “Women’s football was growing up and down the country during the war, with the male league program suspended.
BOXING DAY FOOTBALL GAMES 2018 PLUS
They wore black and white striped jerseys, sky blue shorts and black and white socks, plus hats – deemed compulsory at the time because of their long hair.īy 1920, after enjoying an unbeaten tour in France that boosted their publicity and popularity, they were used to attracting much larger audiences. They had played their first game on Christmas Day, 1917, when 10,000 spectators watched them at Preston’s Deepdale. The stars of the show were Dick, Kerr Ladies FC, a team made up of World War One munitions factory workers from Preston, who had started playing football in 1917 to raise money for hospitalised soldiers. In fact, this was a women’s football match. There was so much fervour surrounding the match, as hordes of fans flocked across Stanley Park, that as many as 15,000 more people were said to have been turned away outside.īut they were not there to watch 22 men kick a leather ball around. It was Boxing Day, 1920 and 53,000 spectators were packed inside Goodison Park for the big game of the festive football calendar.