24 September 1922 - Crossing The Pond (And The Gender Gap)

On 24 September 1922, English women's side Dick, Kerr's Ladies opened their North American tour with a 6-3 loss to Paterson FC.

The Ladies began in 1917 as the works team for the Dick, Kerr & Co. munitions factory, located in Preston, Lancashire. They and other women's clubs soon grew so popular that the FA saw them as a threat to the men's game and issued a 1921 ban preventing the women from using league grounds. Nevertheless, they continued to play on non-league grounds and in 1922, were invited on their 1922 overseas tour.

The tour was scheduled to start in Canada, but upon their arrival on 22 September, they were informed that they were no longer welcome in Canada. They crossed the border to the US and made their way to New Jersey, where they faced Paterson FC. Paterson, a men's club, had won the 1917 National Association Foot Ball League title.

Paterson won that opening match 6-3, but it was one of only two losses Dick, Kerr's Ladies suffered in the eight matches they played against some of the strongest US men's sides of the time. They also lost to New York Centro-Hispano, won against the New Bedford Whalers, the New York Football Club, and the Baltimore Soccer Club, and drew with J&P Coats, Washington Stars, and the Fall River Marksmen. After the match against Fall River, a local paper reported "The score in no way explains how well these English lassies can play the national game of their homeland. Nor could the fans at the game tell just exactly how expert are the women tourists for the opposition was from a team of the best men kickers in the country."

26 April 1905 - Instead Of A Rose, England's Lily

On 26 April 1905, future Dick, Kerr's Ladies winger and the first woman to be inducted in the English Football Hall of Fame Lily Parr was born in St. Helens, Lancashire.

The fourth of seven children, Parr (pictured, far right) grew up playing football with her brothers before joining St. Helens Ladies. There, she was spotted by someone from the Dick, Kerr & Co. locomotive factory, who sponsored the most successful women's team in the country - the Dick, Kerr Ladies. She joined them in 1919 when she was 14 years old and scored 43 goals for them in her first season. She would go on to score more than 900 goals before her retirement in 1951.

In 1920, Parr and the other Dick, Kerr's Ladies represented England against France in a match recognized as the first women's international, winning 2-0.

When the FA banned women's football in 1921, Parr and her team continued to play on non-FA grounds despite decreasings attendances. In 1922, she toured the United States with Dick, Kerr's Ladies and played eight matches against top division US sides, winning three, drawing three, and losing two.

Parr continued to play until 1951, by which time Dick, Kerr's Ladies had been renamed Preston Ladies. Openly gay, she lived with her partner Mary until her death of breast cancer in 1978. In 2007, the London Lesbian Kickabouts club established the Lily Parr Exhibition Trophy in honor of Parr's accomplishments.

5 December 1921 - The FA Adds "Penis" To The Equipment List

On 5 December 1921, the Football Association issued a ban on women's football on the grounds that "the game of football is quite unsuitable for females and ought not to be encouraged."

The FA's action was a response to the growing popularity of the women's game in the early part of the 20th century--popularity which some FA members believed was beginning to threaten the success of men's football.

The women's game was best exemplified by the dominant Dick, Kerr's Ladies (pictured). The Dick, Kerr's Ladies were formed in 1917 at the Dick Kerr and Co. munitions factory in Preston. They were highly successful and played charity matches in front of large crowds, such as the 53,000 who showed up to see their match against St. Helen's Ladies at Goodison Park on 26 December 1920.

The FA ban, however, stifled the growing women's game and prevented any women's sides from playing on grounds belonging to any Football League member. While unofficial matches continued to be played, they did not capture the popularity they had enjoyed before the ban. Dick Kerr's started a rapid decline and disbanded in 1965.

In 1969, driven by England's World Cup success in 1966, female footballers and their supporters formed a new Women's Football Association. The FA eventually recognized the distaff side of the sport in 1971 and, in 2008, officially apologized for the ban.