1970, PATRICIA PALINKAS IS THE FIRST WOMAN IN ACFL

Today, The Grandma has been reading about Patricia Palinkas, who became the first woman to play professionally in an American football game on a day like today in 1970.

Patricia Palinkas (née Barczi, born 1943) is the first woman to have played American football professionally in a predominantly male league. 

She was a holder for her husband Stephen Palinkas for the Orlando Panthers of the minor league Atlantic Coast Football League. She was the only woman professional American football player until Katie Hnida signed with the Fort Wayne Firehawks in 2010.

Palinkas attended Northern Illinois University, but did not play football there. At the time of Mr. and Mrs. Palinkas's signing with Orlando, the team was in severe financial straits, having lost thousands of dollars running the team on a large budget. The incoming ownership group sought a way to draw fans to the gate without the big-budget talent it had relied upon in the 1960s. The publicity that came with a female football player, and the profits that could be realized by hiring a box-office draw at league minimum salary, was likely a key factor in the duo's signing.

Palinkas's first day of play was August 15, 1970, against the Bridgeport Jets, in front of roughly twelve thousand fans. On her first play, Palinkas was attacked by Jets defenseman Wally Florence, who admittedly (and unsuccessfully) attempted to break her neck as punishment for what he perceived to be making folly with a man's game.

Palinkas went on to appear four more times: three consecutive successful extra-point kicks, and a field goal attempt that was blocked.

After her husband injured his leg (reducing his field goal range from 40 yards to an unacceptable 25 yards) and failed to make the preseason cut, Palinkas (after surviving a threat from ACFL Commissioner Cosmo Iacavazzi to block her contract and prevent her from playing) remained the team's holder for a new kicker, Ron Miller, mainly because she was a draw at the box office; she lost interest in the game soon after the decision and was suspended shortly after the start of the season.

After being placed on the Panthers' taxi squad, Palinkas left the team, in part due to the low pay; she received $25 for each of the two preseason games in which she appeared, and was planning on demanding a greater share than the standard $100 ACFL salary had she played in any regular-season games.

Palinkas was one of several Panthers players who quit the team prior to the end of the season because of salary disputes, and several of her teammates complained of not being paid at all. She held an option to return to the team in 1971 (which transferred to the Roanoke Buckskins after the Panthers suspended operations) but, because of the relocation distance and other problems she experienced during her time playing football, she let it lapse.

Palinkas, after her brief stint in professional football, returned to her home in Tampa, Florida, to start a family and continue her career as a first grade teacher.

More information: Time

  

My name Pat also means 'point after touchdown'.

Patricia Palinkas

1939, THE FIRST TELEVISED AMERICAN FOOTBALL GAME

Today, The Grandma has been reading about the first televised American football game, Waynesburg vs. Fordham, on a day like today in 1939.

 

The 1939 Waynesburg vs. Fordham football game was a college football game between the Fordham Rams and the Waynesburg Yellow Jackets played on September 30, 1939. 

The game was played at Triborough Stadium on New York City's Randall's Island. Fordham won the game 34-7. 

Broadcast by NBC, the contest was the first American football game ever televised.

Fordham entered the game a pre-season pick for the national championship, but the first score was completed by Waynesburg when Bobby Brooks completed a 63-yard run for a touchdown on the third play of the game.

Waynesburg only scored in the first quarter but managed to keep Fordham within reach during the early part of the game. Fordham scored in every quarter, leaving the final score at 34-7.

Fordham's offense managed sixteen first downs and 337 yards, while Waynesburg managed only five first downs for a total of 157 yards. Fordham blocked a punt in both the first and second halves of the game and recorded an interception in the fourth quarter that the offense was able to turn into a touchdown.

NBC broadcast the game on station W2XBS with one camera and Bill Stern was the sole announcer. Estimates are that the broadcast reached approximately 1,000 television sets.

The game came just over a month after the Brooklyn Dodgers hosted the Cincinnati Reds in the first-ever televised professional baseball game, and five months after the Princeton and Columbia baseball teams played the first televised American sporting event.

Sports broadcasting continued less than one month later on October 22 with a telecast of a game between the now-defunct Brooklyn Football Dodgers and the Philadelphia Eagles at Ebbets Field. Brooklyn won 24-14 in what became the first televised professional football game. 

On February 28, 1940, the University of Pittsburgh played Fordham at Madison Square Garden in the first televised basketball game.

College football on television continued with the second televised college game just one month later, on October 28, when the Kansas State Wildcats hosted the Nebraska Cornhuskers for their homecoming contest.

More information: NCAA

I've been playing American football
since I was six years old.
I was a captain of my high school team,
playing strong safety.

 

Gabriel Luna