‘The Herricanes’ Review – In A League Of Their Own

Here’s a story we bet you didn’t know about: In the 1970s through the 1980s, there was a national women’s football league in America. Real tackle football. Director Olivia Kuan’s own mother played in this league, so she sought out the players to get their stories told and explain why football may be the final frontier for women’s sports.

On June 23rd, 1972, then-President Nixon signed Title IX of the Education Amendment into law. This prohibits schools from discrimination based on sex and gender, allowing for equal funding for women’s sports and putting protections in place to end discrimination and harassment towards women in the workplace. Armed with this new standard, teams were formed to create the National Women’s Football League (NWFL). This was not the first attempt at a women’s league, as entrepreneur and talent agent, Sid Friedman started a small league in the 60s, but he used it mainly for exhibition and charity games and as a halftime show for the NFL. It was never meant to be taken seriously. But by the time the league moved on, they were shocked to find out how much women really wanted to play the game and play it well.

This league would be vastly different from the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL) that ran from 1943 – 1954, which had strict standards on what the players could wear both on the field and off, and demanded they attend charm school and promote femininity. But in the NWFL, there were no pretty dresses. No charm schools. No beauty contests. It was hardcore, no-nonsense, tackle football, and the girls loved it. 

One thing that you take away from this film is how much the girls loved to play. It was over 50 years ago, and each woman speaks about it like it was yesterday, and they were having the time of their lives. They speak fondly about great, tough games, even tougher opponents, rough workouts and practices, and the excitement each of them had to do it all again the next day. There was a hunger to keep it going as long as possible, but despite their best efforts, many of the founding teams had folded by 1980. The league itself was packed up by ‘89, and the history and legacy of these players were all but forgotten…until now.

This documentary is coming out at just the right time as women’s sports are finally becoming more recognized in the mainstream. This story that had been lost to history is back out there for the world to see how ahead of the curve women were in the 70s, how far we’ve come since then, and how much further we still have to go. Aside from just the history, Kuan also delivers on the presentation. The archival footage is touched up to give it a grittier look, but there are also some recreations done with puppetry that add style to the proceedings. The heart of the film, though, is the players. Kuan gets interviews mainly from Houston Herricane players, as that’s the team her mom played on, but also from some of the members of the 3x league champions, the Oklahoma City Dolls. Through this, we get a sense of their rivalry in the league and how it was mostly one-sided for some time.

Kuan shows us that the camaraderie was real, the competitive spirit was real, and the love for not just the game, but for each other, was very real. For many of the women in this documentary, they were told outright that football was only for boys. This is a sentiment still being spread today. For every girl who decides to become an athlete, there are three more who are turned away from the idea by either parents or peers. This barrier is so prevalent that some may not even know that there is still a women’s football league in America today. 

This documentary is an eye-opener for anyone thinking there are limits to women’s abilities. That this door, for some reason, should remain forever closed. This documentary is a call to action for women of the future – don’t ask for permission, and don’t beg for forgiveness, either. Tear down those barriers yourself and make your own lanes. For too long, women have had to fit into certain boxes to fit the needs of a patriarchal society, but times are changing. Thanks to this doc, we have the history, now it’s time to reshape the future.