Flag Football has risen from being a Physical Education ‘game’ to became a sport offered by community-based Parks and Recreation programs….. to a sport supported nationally by the NFL and contested by several MD high schools but not currently offered in Harford County. Next, it’ll be part of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
For many years PE teachers played flag football during gym class. The games were usually played within the 40-45 minute time constraints of a periodic school day. Games were often co-ed, loosely structured, and basically just something for teenagers to do to burn off some energy.
From 1973-1977 Bel Air Parks and Recreation offered a Girl’s Flag Football League to young ladies 14-18 years of age. There were 4 teams. They’d play each other twice. For the post season, the best players of the 4 Bel Air teams would join forces to play teams from Baltimore County.
The girls played in the fall and most games were played on converted soccer field at Bel Air Elementary School, where imaginative coaches and parents would make goal posts out of the soccer goal.
While doing research for this article, several former players were interviewed. All have the fondest of memories of the experience. From Aegis articles and a stat sheet shared by a former player, the top players are a ‘who’s who’ of Bel Air female sports of the time. The article listed Ellin Gerrety, Fran Szrom, Shirley Ashburn, Karen Stout and Liz Panos as top passers, receivers and ground gainers.
It also became apparent that many of the football players were Field Hockey players during the week, for Bel Air High School, then traded in the sticks and kilts for shorts and a pig skin on weekends
Another interesting aspect of Female Flag Football in the 70s was the newspaper coverage. The Aegis and the News American covered the games and posted statistics.
A few hundred spectators would watch the Bel Air girls play each other, but 2-3 times that would come out when the Bel Air Travel Team would take on Baltimore County teams like Western, Dundalk and Loch Raven. In an Aegis article from 1974, it was suggested that the league’s leading rusher, Liz Panos, might be a welcome addition to a struggling Bobcat men’s football team.
Female Flag Football was as big a deal as any other non-scholastic sport at the time, then it was gone. Flag football was back to being a gym class game and Powder Puff game held during Homecoming Week at most high schools.
It appears that due in part to the correlation between Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) and multiple concussions discovered in NFL players, flag football is back as a way to teach the non-contact skills of the sport before introducing players to more physical side.
In addition, having a female counterpart sport makes it easier for schools to offer the same number of athletic opportunities to boys and girls, which is the main thrust of the gender equity law passed in 1972. This may be one of reasons for BA parks and recreation offering flag football to girls in 1973
After 50 years, Female Flag Football has traveled up and down the sports rollercoaster. It appears that regardless of where it goes from here, for the girls that played for the Bel Air Parks and Recreation league in the late 70’s, it was a memorable experience.