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JUST ANOTHER PLAYER<o:p></o:p>From a young age, I played football and rugby with my brothers. There were few places for us to play, so we created our own pitches on wasteland.&nbsp;<o:p></o:p>We lived in St. Helens, a tough industrial town in Lancashire, UK. Fortunately, my parents supported my sporting interests. The boys played hard to win, and as far as they were concerned, I was just another player.<img src="https://cdn.builder.io/api/v1/image/assets%2Fb3b13b7f131f44b8b9040dab74852379%2Fb518d8f20d68453fa767e03f5c03d687" alt="" style="width: 251px; height: 308.158px;"> <o:p></o:p>Other girls my age were learning to sew or cook, but that didn’t interest me at all. I wanted to learn how to tackle and kick. I was naturally left-footed and later someone described me as having a kick like a mule.<o:p></o:p>MAKING THE TEAM<o:p></o:p>During the Great War, many men had gone off to fight, and women were filling their jobs in the factories around the country. Many of those factories organised women’s football teams. They were well supported, and the games attracted lots of fans. Since I was very fit, I was asked to join one of those factory teams, St. Helens Ladies, when I was just 14. One day, after a match, Mr. Alfred Frankland, the manager of the Dick, Kerr’s Ladies team in Preston asked me if I would like to work in Preston and play for his team. He said that I would receive a weekly wage at the factory and expenses for each match. It was an enormous sum!&nbsp;<img src="https://cdn.builder.io/api/v1/image/assets%2Fb3b13b7f131f44b8b9040dab74852379%2F2faf5d34696545468567358441fdc0c9" alt="" style="width: 457.34px; height: 250.125px;"> <o:p></o:p>After discussing it with my parents, I joined their organisation. It was a big decision, as I was only 15 years of age, but I never regretted it. It was hard being away from home, but it gave me the opportunity to grow as a person and I became a loyal and kind teammate. <o:p></o:p>During the first season, I scored 43 goals. In the same year, the Dick, Kerr’s ladies team played four games against the touring French side. We were proud to raise quite a bit of money for charity in those games.<o:p></o:p>MORE THAN FOOTBALL<o:p></o:p>Newspapers carried stories and pictures of our efforts. Who would have believed girls playing football would be big news? Our spirits were high, as we felt our football had an important purpose. We always put on a good show, and kept spectators entertained.<o:p></o:p>On 26 December 1920, more than 53,000 people were inside Everton's Goodison Park stadium to watch the Dick, Kerr’s Ladies. We beat my former team, St. Helens Ladies, 4-0. It was the largest crowd that had ever watched a women's football game in England.<o:p></o:p>I was well known for my locker-room chat, including joking about the fancy stockings and hats my friends wore, which were the fashion of the time.<o:p></o:p>But that excitement soon turned to sadness when we learned about an influenza outbreak. Soldiers had been infected during the Great War, and when they returned home, their families also became ill. There was no cure, and a quarter of the population contracted the disease and millions died. <o:p></o:p>Also, in 1921, coal miners had their wages cut by 50%. Miners went on strike and we played matches to raise money to help the mine workers’ families. Because we did this, the mine owners said we were helping trade unions and were dangerous. Suddenly, football had become involved in a political battle.<o:p></o:p>A STEP BACK AND MOVING FORWARD<o:p></o:p>The biggest blow came on 21 December 1921, when the Football Association issued a statement saying, ‘the game of football is quite unsuitable for females and should not be encouraged.’&nbsp;They told clubs that we should not be allowed to play on their grounds. We were shocked, as we had done so much to help people in need. Mr. Frankland said that if we can’t play in England, we’ll play in North America.&nbsp;<img src="https://cdn.builder.io/api/v1/image/assets%2Fb3b13b7f131f44b8b9040dab74852379%2F60f4ec5419044146b71c06be12d42167" alt=""> <o:p></o:p>We played nine games in the United States – but against men not women. The tour was tough, but we still did well and won or drew six of our nine matches. When we returned to England, we discovered that the political football storm had not gone away. We now had to play in local parks and in some dog track arenas. Fewer and fewer people turned up to watch us play. <o:p></o:p>THE BEAUTIFUL GAME<o:p></o:p>When the factory closed, our team continued to play, but now under the name of Preston Ladies. A number of our team left when they married and had families. That path was not for me, and I became a nurse and worked at Whittingham Hospital. <o:p></o:p>In 1937, Preston Ladies beat Edinburgh Ladies 5-1 to claim the ‘Championship of Great Britain and the World’, and we were considered unofficial World Champions. <o:p></o:p>In 1946, I was named captain of the team. I had scored almost 1000 goals during my career and had only missed five matches. Quite an achievement! I played my last game on 12 August 1950, when I was 45 years old – and I scored a goal in our 11-1 win over Scotland. <o:p></o:p>In the early 1960s, I decided to retire from my work as a nurse. In 1967, I was diagnosed with cancer. Fortunately, I lived long enough to see the Football Association repeal its 1921 ban. It had taken 50 years, but I knew then that women’s football would someday become as popular as it had once been.<o:p></o:p>GLOSSARYGreat War – what World War I was referred to at the time. This global conflict took place between 1914 and 1918. It was fought mainly in Europe, but it also spread to the Middle East, Africa and Asia. It was the largest war that the world had seen up to that time. <o:p></o:p>Influenza – an infection that affects the nose, throat and respiratory system. This contagious illness causes fever, chills, cough, body aches, headaches and sometimes earaches or sinus problems. The global outbreak of influenza following World War I was known as the ‘Spanish Flu’.<o:p></o:p>Trade Unions – organisations of workers from a particular profession, industry or company who come together to get better pay, hours, benefits and working conditions.<o:p></o:p>LEGACY AND RECOGNITION<ul><li>The Lily Parr Exhibition Trophy was played between football teams from England, France and the United States between 2007 and 2009.</li><li>Lily Parr was the first woman inducted into the English Football Hall of Fame at the National Football Museum in Manchester in 2002.&nbsp;</li><li>In 2019, a statue of Lily Parr was erected at the National Football Museum to commemorate her achievements. The museum also opened a gallery dedicated to her in 2022.</li><li>Lily Parr lived to see the FA overturn their decision to ban women playing on associate grounds in 1971 – 50 years after it had been imposed. And in 2008, the governing body issued an apology for its treatment of women footballers in Parr's time.</li><li>According to some estimates, the matches played by the Dick, Kerr’s Preston Ladies with their star player, Lily Parr, over time helped raise the equivalent of about 10 million pounds for charities.</li><li>The success of the women's game today is a testament to Parr and those she played alongside.</li></ul>IMAGE CAPTIONS AND CREDITS<o:p></o:p>Lily Parr’s School Portrait, Unknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons<o:p></o:p>Dick, Kerr Ladies,&nbsp;Alamy<o:p></o:p>Lily Parr in action,&nbsp;via Wikimedia

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