Chris Donnelly     NWFL

It was a chance to not only play football but to face a new challenge and to make sports history as well. So when the National Women’s Football League opened for business Chris Donnelly signed up.

The 34-year-old was a mainstay in the defensive secondary as the Philadelphia Liberty Belles rolled to the championship in the league’s inaugural season by winning seven of their eight regular season games. Ironically, Donnelly missed the Belles’ 40-7 win over the Pensacola Power in the championship game because of a fractured clavicle. But she made the trip to Pensacola anyway which was fitting because without women like Donnelly the NWFL would not have survived.

A good all-around athlete growing up Donnelly’s best sports at Little Flower High were basketball and softball. Later she attended the the University of Scranton before taking a position as a counselor with the Archdiocese of Philadelphia while continuing to play recreational softball.

Like many of her peers in the NWFL she found that playing football was unlike any other athletic experience she had ever had.
“Its like no team sport I have ever played in my life and like no individual sport that I've ever played,” Donnelly said. “That’s the thing about football, it really combines you as an individual with working together as a team and I certainly never played anything that you need to do more preparation for.

“In softball you run up to the field, you just got out of work, you show up, you put on your spikes and you go out and play. You'd get your butt kicked in football if you did that. I've never really played anything that needed as much commitment; hands down it’s topped them all and the rewards top everything as well.”

Along with the rewards came sacrifices. Donnelly and her teammates came to practice after working all day at full time jobs. They had to use their own money on road trips and for extra equipment like elbow and knee pads. Donnelly’s medical insurance covered her for her injuries but she still had to take care of copays for X-rays, MRIs and other assorted visits to doctors to deal with football’s bumps and bruises.

There was also the challenge of combining her abilities and attitudes with those of her teammates. A vocal leader who had little difficulty showing her emotions, Donnelly worked hard to be a unifying force.

 As with any football team there were sometimes clashes but players and coaches gradually learned to accommodate one another as they journeyed through uncharted waters.

“No matter whether you liked or disliked somebody we came together like no team I’ve ever seen,” Donnelly said. “Sure we didn’t all like each other. And there might be somebody on the other side of the ball whose helmet I might want to knock off in practice. But I’m the first one right there when she’s making a good play during a game.”

If there was a defining moment for the new team in the new league it came on Opening Night, April 21, 2001 when the Liberty Belles entertained the Connecticut Crush. Four hours before game time the Liberty Belles were wondering if they would be playing to an empty house (‘Is it history in the making if nobody comes?’ Donnelly asked herself) but in the end close to two thousand paying customers showed up.

“I think we were all pleasantly surprised, if not shocked, by the turnout,” Donnelly said. “It was kind of wild. It was pretty surreal.”

The league and its 10 franchises operated on tight budgets and there were questions about whether there would be a Year Two.

Donnelly would like to see some major corporate sponsors come on board to give the NWFL the same kind of resources that the WNBA and the WUSA have at their disposal. “Hopefully not just our team learned  a lot but the league did as a whole,” she said. If nothing else everyone learned that you need to get sponsorships in order to make it go, not just make it go but go well.”