1. Lilian Parr was an English professional women's association football player who played as a winger.
23 Facts About Lily Parr
1. 2.
Lily Parr is best known for playing for the Dick, Kerr's Ladies team, which was founded in 1917 and based in Preston, Lancashire.
3.
Lily Parr was born in a rented house in Union Street, Gerrard's Bridge, St Helens; the fourth of seven children born to George and Sarah Lily Parr.
4.
Lily Parr's father was a labourer at the local glass factory and the family rented out space in the yard and rooms at their house for extra income.
5.
Lily Parr played for local team St Helens Ladies, where it is rumoured she appeared more than 100 times for the club.
6.
Lily Parr had a romantic relationship with her teammate Alice Woods, who was from St Helens.
7.
Unlike women's teams today, Lily Parr played against both male and female teams and she reputedly had a harder shot than any male player.
8.
Lily Parr had started life playing football with her brothers on waste ground in St Helens, before playing for the St Helens' Ladies team.
9.
When Lily Parr first came to the team she was fourteen years old and she played at left-back.
10.
Lily Parr was moved to the left-wing on New Years Day 1921 and scored a hat-trick against a "Rest of Lancashire" team.
11.
Lily Parr totalled 967 goals in her career between 1919 and 1951.
12.
Support for women's teams declined, but many women such as Lily Parr continued to play on village greens and another non-associated land.
13.
Lily Parr continued with the Dick, Kerr's Ladies even when they lost the support of their factory and were renamed the Preston Ladies.
14.
Lily Parr worked in Whittingham Mental Hospital until she retired.
15.
Lily Parr lived out most of the rest of her life in Goosnargh, near Preston.
16.
Lily Parr lived with her partner Mary, and since her death has become an LGBT rights icon.
17.
Lily Parr lived to see The FA lift the ban on women from playing on their member grounds in 1971.
18.
Lily Parr died of breast cancer in 1978, aged 73, and is buried in the town of her birth, St Helens, Merseyside.
19.
At almost 5 foot 10 inches tall, Lily Parr's strength was said to be one of her greatest assets.
20.
Lily Parr was particularly noted for the power of her kicking, both in delivering from the left flank and shooting at goal.
21.
Lily Parr was the only person I knew who could lift a dead ball, the old heavy leather ball, from the left-wing over to me on the right and nearly knock me out with the force of the shot.
22.
The Lily Parr Exhibition Trophy was born and the Kickabouts played the Paris team Arc en Ciel, re-enacting the first match between the Dick, Kerr Ladies and the Paris ladies' team.
23.
In July 2023, Lily Parr was featured in the New York Times Overlooked series obituaries on remarkable people whose deaths initially went unreported in newspaper.