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Females In Football recognizes the impact of women in America's dominant spectator sport. In 1923, women joined the cheerleading squad at the University of Minnesota. In 1954, the Baltimore Colts became the first NFL team tp have cheerleaders and in 2015, 26 of the 32 franchises have squads. Patricia Palinkas became the first women to play professional football in 1970 with Katie Hnida breaking the barrier in professional indoor football in 1999 and was the first woman to score in an NCAA Bowl Game.

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LADY REF EARNS HER STRIPES
By LAURA ITALIANO
NEW YORK POST - APRIL 4, 2015
Now that's a good call.
The NFL has hired its first female referee: Sarah Thomas, a gridiron veteran from Mississippii who has been blowing a whistle for the sport since 1996, when she worked her first Division 1-A high school game.
But she'll calla penalty on anyone who calls her a pioneer. "I set out to do this and get involved in officiating not having any idea that there were not any females officiating football," she once told the NFL Network. "Being a former basketball player, you saw females officiating all the time. So, no, I don't feel like a pioneer."
Thomas was a replacement ref in 2012 during the NFL lockout. She was also the first woman to officiate in a major college football game, in a bowl game and at a Big Ten stadium. And while the men in stripes may take note of her gender - she was visibly pregnant with two of her three kids at some important high school games - she says she has never felt discrimination on the field. "The guys that I officiate with, it's a profession," she told Fox Sports Southwest in 2013 after being tapped for a prestigious league Officiating Development program. "They understand that we're all there for the same goal, to get through the game, go unnoticed, be uneventful," she said. "And soI don't ever feel like I am isolatedor anything. I've been welcomed and part of the group."
A pharmaceutical rep in the off-season, she lives with her hubby, Brian, and their daughter and two sons near Jackson, MS. She calls penalties in a Southern drawl, her log blond hair tucked beneath her NFL cap. Thomas has spent the past two years earning her stripes in the training program, working New Orleans Saints practices and spending time at an Indianapolis Colts' minicamp, the Los Angeles Times reported. The NFL has been promoting her in those two years, trotting her out for media interviews on CNN, "Good Morning America," ESPN and the NFL Network. "I don't feel a weight on my shoulders. It's exciting," Thomas tolf Fox Sports Southwest. "I didn't set out to ne the first or a pioneer, but I will embrace it if that does happen."
Thomas is now the first female permanent game official in NFL history. The first female ref to actually work an NFL game, Shannon Eastin, did so in a temporary, nonunion capacity in 2012, officiating a regular-season game between St. Louis and Detroit when the NFL locked out its officials.
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