Preston’s Dick Kerr Ladies’ football team of 100 years ago were recognised at the 2018 North West Football Awards on Monday night with members from the campaign group and the PNE Community and Education Trust picking up the ‘Special Recognition Award’.
The Dick Kerr Ladies Football Team were one of the earliest known women's association football teams in England and have been fondly known as the greatest ever women's team since their formation in 1917.
Founded in our very own Preston, a group of women factory workers joined forces as a team, drawing in crowds of 10,000 at Deepdale, and 53,000 at Goodison Park which helped raise substantial funds for wounded soldiers.
Despite disapproval from some quarters, and even a ban on women's football from the FA in the 1920s, the Dick, Kerr Ladies battled through the discrimination and discrepancies to become a pioneer of women's football right up until 1965.
50 years on, the story was unearthed thanks to local historians and Preston North End and unleashed mass exposure of the women's game - and the campaign work was recognised at the North West Football Awards at Emirates Old Trafford this week which celebrates the very best of football in the North West.
On the award, local historian and author ‘In a League of their Own, the original history of the Dick, Kerr Ladies’ Gail Newsham said: It means the absolute world to us – I’m so proud and pleased for these women, it’s just amazing to have the Dick, Kerr Ladies recognised.
“Through some of the darkest times in our history, the Dick, Kerr Ladies were there to fly the flag for the community.”
Deepdale plays tribute to the Dick, Kerr Ladies football team with a permanent six metre wide granite plaque which takes pride of place next to the Sir Tom Finney Splash for visitors or passersby to view.