Women's Professional Football League
{{Short description|Former women's American football league in the United States}}
{{for|the American football league of the same name founded in 1965|Women's Professional Football League (1965–1973)}}
{{Infobox sports league
|logo=WPFL_logo.png
|pixels=168px
|caption=The WPFL logo
|sport=American football
|founded=1999
|teams=1
|country=United States
|champion=So Cal Scorpions
}}
The Women's Professional American Football League (WPFL) was a women's professional American football league in the United States. With teams across the United States, the WPFL had its first game in 1999 with just two original teams: the Lake Michigan Minx and the Minnesota Vixens. Fifteen teams nationwide competed for the championship in 2006.
Unlike the other women's American football franchises, the WPFL operated as a fall league and not a spring league.
History
In 1999 two businessmen, Carter Turner and Terry Sullivan,[http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0051,cagan,20845,3.html A League of Their Own, page 1 - News - Village Voice - Village Voice] decided to research the feasibility of a professional women’s football league by gathering together top female athletes into two teams and playing an exhibition game in front of an audience. The game between the Lake Michigan Minx and the Minnesota Vixens at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome in Minneapolis, Minnesota was a success and turned into a six-game exhibition tour across the country[https://www.pbs.org/pov/pov2001/trueheartedvixens/thefilm.html P.O.V. - True-Hearted Vixens . The Film | PBS] dubbed the “No Limits” Barnstorming Tour.[http://www.girlstalksports.com/FOOTBALL/football.html NHL Football - Women’s Professional Football League – NFL for women - News by Girls Talk Sports]
The success of the Barnstorming Tour led to the first official WPFL season in 2000 with 11 teams competing nationwide.[http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2000/football-1213.html Campus cop tackles women's pro football - MIT News Office] This first season ended with some turmoil however; the regular season was shortened by several games, players were not given their promised $100 per-game salaries, and there were allegations regarding instability with some of the league's financial backers.[http://www.orlandoweekly.com/features/story.asp?id=2393 Orlando Weekly - Features Story - Stumbling, Bumbling, Tumbling]
The WPFL rebounded the next year completing the 2001 season after several organizational changes. Notable changes included the departure of founders Sullivan and Turner (Turner then founded the WAFL;[http://archive.salon.com/people/feature/2001/12/19/wafl/index2.html Women's football: Ready for prime time? | Salon People] restructure of the league by several WPFL team owners: Melissa Korpacz - New England Storm, Robin Howington - Houston Energy, and Donna Roebuck and Dee Kennamer - Austin Rage;{{cite web |url=http://www.newenglandstorm.com/team/index.html |title=The New England Storm {{!}} Team Info |website=www.newenglandstorm.com |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20031002084037/http://www.newenglandstorm.com/team/index.html |archive-date=2003-10-02}} changes to player/team compensation; and the moving of the start of the season from fall to summer.[http://www.yaleherald.com/archive/xxxi/2001.02.09/sports/p29league.html In this league it is okay to throw like a girl | Feb 9, 2001]
Championships
| class="wikitable"
! Year !! Champion !! Score !! Runner-up |
| 1999
| align="center" | Lake Michigan Minx || align="center" | 30-27 || align="center" | Minnesota Vixen |
|---|
| 2000
| align="center" | Houston Energy || align="center" | 39-7 || align="center" | New England Storm |
| 2001
| align="center" | Houston Energy || align="center" | 47-14 || align="center" | Austin Rage |
| 2002
| align="center" | Houston Energy || align="center" | 56-7 || align="center" | Wisconsin Riveters |
| 2003
| align="center" | Northern Ice || align="center" | 53-12 || align="center" | Florida Stingrays |
| 2004
| align="center" | Dallas Diamonds || align="center" | 68-13 || align="center" | Northern Ice |
| 2005
| align="center" | Dallas Diamonds || align="center" | 61-8 || align="center" | New York Dazzles |
| 2006
| align="center" | Dallas Diamonds || align="center" | 34-27 || align="center" | Houston Energy |
| 2007
| align="center" | SoCal Scorpions || align="center" | 14-7 || align="center" | Houston Energy |
See also
References
{{reflist}}
{{Women's gridiron football leagues}}
{{Major women's sport leagues in North America}}