On This Day in NFL History: August 15th 1970, Patricia Palinkas becomes the first professional female football player
It’s 1970. The Beatles have just disbanded, Richard Nixon is the United States president, Sports Illustrated magazines cost 15 cents and The Kansas City Chiefs are the Super Bowl champs.
Also another very important issue to note is the 1972 US law Title IX didn’t even exist yet, a law that prohibits sex discrimination (including pregnancy, sexual orientation, and gender identity) in any educational setting or receiving federal assistance.
With today’s story, it’s importance is to show as to how women’s involvement in pro football started with one iconic woman that only started playing the game to help her husband with making an professional football team, her name was Patricia Palinkas.
Born on October 22nd, 1943 in Tampa Florida, Patricia Palinkas was determined to be something special in this world, soon attending Northern Illinois University in the 1960s.
She never had a interest in the game of football till her husband, Steve Palinkas, tried out for the Orlando Panthers minor league football team as a kicker.
His first attempt of joining the ACFL (Atlantic Coast Football League) was a failure. He had then asked his wife, Patricia Palinkas, to help him as a placeholder during his next tryout with the Panthers for next weekend’s tryouts.
In a interview with TIME magazine in 2016, Steve stated that “I told them, let me do it again, let me bring my holder because when I practice, I always use my wife Pat.”
Steve Palinkas, who had gotten back from the military after service in Germany, always cherished his wife helping him out.
He was always grateful for her help and was able to make the Panthers roster after the 2nd tryouts with her help, and the team had also signed Patricia as a placeholder, creating the football couple that bonded over the game of football.
The signing wasn’t sincere at first though, as the ACFL was struggling with profits at the time, with a new incoming ownership group coming in to draw fans to the gate without the big-budget talent like in the NFL had.
The publicity with having a female football player, and the profits by hiring a box-office draw at league minimum salary, was the key reasoning as to why in the couple was signed in the first place – After all the publicity and media coverage, it was finally game time.
On August 15th in 1970, against the Bridgeport Jets, Patricia Palinkas became the first woman to play football at the professional league level, as Palinkas went on to appear four times with: three successful extra-point kicks, and a blocked field goal attempt.
In her debut game, Jets defenseman Wally Florence tried to break her neck on her first play of the game for what he perceived as her “making folly with a man’s game.”
That type of aggression led to her husband Steve injuring his leg during preseason, getting cut by the team, Patricia herself had made the team through all the hate around her much-debated introduction into the league.
With the team’s new kicker being Ron Miller instead of her husband, Patricia had lost interest in playing football and ended up being suspended by the league when regular season had started.
Patricia Palinkas only received $25 for her participation for each of the two preseason games in which she appeared, and was planning on wanting a greater share than the $100 ACFL salary had she played.
She would left the team after being disrespected, being one of several Panthers players who quit the team because of salary disputes, and several of her teammates complained of not being paid at all.
The Athletic Coast Football League was a complete failure and shut down in 1973, while Patricia and Steve Palinkas returned to her home in Tampa, Florida to start a family.
In a recent interview with Tampa Bay Fox 13 News, Patricia stated that “To make that kind of history warms my heart. I couldn’t believe it was me out there.” Pat also added that “I was a trailblazer and I’m very, very proud of that.”
Patricia Palinkas continues her career as a first grade teacher at the age of 79 years old, mostly remembered as a pioneer of football history for women around the world.
