Powderpuff is a reference to the division of a traditionally male sport reserved for females regardless of the age of the participants.
Powderpuff football games are an annual tradition at many high schools and universities in the United States and Canada. The game usually puts girls from the junior class against girls in the senior class or cross-town school rivals in a flag football or touch football contest. Boys from the classes, usually athletes, will be the cheerleaders. Funds from the ticket and concession sales for the game typically go to charity, the senior class, or to a dance afterwards.
The term originates from the powderpuff used in cosmetics for powdering. Typical female behavior at the time and in the place the term originated included repeatedly taking out a powderpuff and a small mirror to powder themselves in public.
Many schools will create T-shirts that will be worn at different times in the school year.
Powderpuff games usually occur before homecoming.
The first Powderpuff Football game was played on October 20, 1945, at Eastern State Teachers College, in Madison, South Dakota.[1] Eastern is currently known as Dakota State University.[2]
Eastern had cancelled many campus activities for the duration of World War II. Among these were the annual homecoming celebration and intercollegiate sports, including football. [3] With the signing of the Peace Treaty with Japan on September 2, 1945, and the war’s official end, Homecoming was again on the schedule at Eastern. The traditional football game seemed out of the question, however, due to the wartime military draft. Just three men enrolled for the fall term that year. [4] .
"A bunch of us were sitting around after gym class and we thought, if we’re going to have Homecoming, we’ve got to have a football game," said Susie Lowry, who was a freshman at Eastern in 1945. "We decided we should have a game of our own."[5]
Robert C. Nelles, a freshman at Eastern that year, was on the committee in charge of organizing Homecoming. The very idea of women playing football "was enough to curl your teeth," he wrote in an account of the game for the History of Lake County, but the committee nonetheless gave its approval for a game with all women players.[6]
There were two groups of Eastern coeds at the time: those who lived at their homes in Madison while attending classes on campus, and those from surrounding small towns who lived in the dorm. The 23 girls who wanted to play football divided into two teams, informally known as the Townies and Dormies. [7] On game day, the teams were designated Blue and Gold teams, respectively, which were Eastern’s school colors. [8]
Leota Van Ornum, Eastern's physical education teacher, served as coach for both teams. There was a high school on Eastern’s campus where students training to be teachers did their practice teaching. Robert Ormseth, who coached that school’s football team, served as her assistant. [9]
"A fairly large group of spectators showed great interest and enthusiasm during the game," according to The Eastern, the campus newspaper. [10] Friends and family and alumni had to be well-represented for that to be so because the 23 players constituted almost half of Eastern’s enrollment of 53 that term. Robert Nelles and Paul Tommeraasen, two of the three male students, were pressed into service as game officials. [11]
“We tried to be almost real, with huddles and all that," said Lowry. "There was a lot of clowning around. A few of us fell down, just to make it look good, but it wasn’t really rough or anything." [12]
The neophyte gridders proved more adept at defense than offense, with each team holding the other scoreless until the game’s final minute. Doris Treloar of the Gold team finally broke through and scored a touchdown, which was immediately answered by Nancy Baughman of the Blue. Professor A.E. Swan, the college librarian who was serving as the referee, considered that an opportune moment to end the contest on an amiable note. [13]
In its story about the game, the Madison Daily Leader dubbed the two teams "The Powderpuff and Rouge Elevens."[14] The name was suggested because the women chose to poke fun at themselves by staying on the field at halftime and putting on fresh makeup before the amused spectators. [15]
The first powderpuff football game of the modern era was held in 1972, in Wallingford, Connecticut. Judy Samaha, the athletic director of Mark T. Sheehan High School at the time, began this sport to incorporate more girls into athletic activities. She contacted Lyman Hall High School, Sheehan's rival, to set up a small, but fierce, football game among the senior girls of both schools. Since then, powderpuff football has spread over the nation, from neighboring towns in Connecticut to schools in California and Texas. The annual Samaha bowl game still takes place the Wednesday before Thanksgiving as the longest running powderpuff game in the country.
The tradition was adopted in Massachusetts at schools such as Pope John XXIII High School where underclass girls faced upperclass girls. The tradition still lives with schools like Mystic Valley Regional Charter School playing once a year the day before Thanksgiving day, or St. David's School in Raleigh, NC, which attracts a stadium full of spectators for a high-energy game under the lights.