Lily Parr - Transcript
It was Boxing Day 1920 and the Goodison Park football stadium, was alive with excitement. Thousands had turned up to see one of the most hotly anticipated matches of the year.
The Dick, Kerr team were scheduled to play their rivals St Helen’s and sixty seven thousand people had flocked to the ground, desperate to support their teams and enjoy the skill and agility of their favourite players.
When the ground reached its capacity of 53,000, the rest were turned away, but those with a lucky ticket were not to be disappointed. After an exhilarating 90 minutes the Dick, Kerrs won 4 - 0 and the roar from the crowd was deafening.
But this was not a match played by men. These were the elite players of women’s football and though they didn’t know it then this day was to mark the pinnacle of the women’s game for a long time to come.
Only the following year their dream of a well funded and well supported women’s game would lie trampled underfoot, forced to lie dormant for another 50 years, before it could slowly start to emerge again.
Today we hear the story of the sporting superstar of the day, Lily Parr, a football legend with a kick like a mule…
Lily Parr was born into a large and loving working class family in 1905 in St Helens, which is now a part of Merseyside. She was the fourth of eight children and as a young girl learned to play football from her older brothers and was equally adept at rugby.
The kids would all play in the streets and on local wastelands and on realising the strength of her left foot, Lily would spend hours perfecting her power kick.
It became apparent that she was able to score from anywhere on a football pitch and in rugby her penalty kick and drop goals were unsurpassed.
She was a natural sportswoman. Added to this she would grow to be nearly six foot tall, a powerhouse with jet black hair and a determined glint in her eye, who had no intention of being held back because she was female. She was her own person and was going to do things her way.
Women’s football had long been controversial. It’s history can be traced back to Tudor times and it is said that the world’s first football was owned by Mary Queen of Scots, who had a keen interest in the sport.
In the 1880s the game became popular in Scotland and in 1881 a match was held in Glasgow between a Scottish team and their English opponents. Five thousand spectators flocked to the match, but it had to be abandoned when hundreds of men ran on to the pitch in violent protest and the police were called in. Fortunately the players were able to escape the scene in a horsedrawn bus.