Soccer History | Port of Quebec — They Sailed to Play Women and Were Made to Play Men

Dick, Kerr Ladies came ashore at Quebec on 22 September 1922, off the SS Montclare, expecting a tour of Canada and the United States against women's teams.

They were told almost immediately that they would not be playing in Canada at all.

Earlier that month, at its annual general meeting in Winnipeg, the Dominion of Canada Football Association had resolved that it did not approve of the proposal of ladies' football. The team was shut out of every ground in the country.

Then came the second problem. In the United States there were not enough women's teams available, so the fixtures were remade against men, including professional clubs of the newly formed American Soccer League.

The tour shrank from twenty-four matches over four months to nine over nine weeks. The United States Football Association took over the club's finances partway through, after the Brooklyn club running the tour proved unable to manage them.

They opened on 24 September against Paterson FC and lost 6-3.

Where that match was played is worth getting right. Most accounts say the tour opened in Paterson, New Jersey; the Society for American Soccer History places it in Clifton, against the Paterson club. The club's name and the venue have been merged into one. The Washington Post of 23 September, quoted in the standard reference work, spells the town Patterson.

They drew 4-4 with J & P Coats at Pawtucket on 30 September, then lost in New York to Centro-Hispano the following day in front of 7,000 people. That score is given as 7-3 in one account and 7-5 in another from the same organisation.

Across the nine matches they won three, drew three and lost three, before crowds of four to ten thousand.

Peter Renzulli kept goal for Paterson, who were national champions that year. He said afterwards that they had a hell of a job beating them.

The squad photographed at Pawtucket that September included Alice Kell, Jennie Harris, Florrie Redford, Carmen Pomiès and Lily Parr.

This entry is pinned at the Port of Quebec, where the tour changed shape before a ball had been kicked. The berth is not recorded and the port is large, so the pin is good to a few hundred metres rather than to a quay. The photograph shows the modern port in winter.

Sources: Society for American Soccer History; Wikipedia; History.com; soccerhistoryusa.org; dickkerrladies.com.

Cover photo: Wilfredor, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.