Page 9 - Gender Inequality in Sports: From Title IX to World Titles

ANTOINETTE (TONI) HARRIS AND HER
FOOTBALL SCHOLARSHIP

Toni Harris fell in love with football when she was five. She
played junior varsity football at her high school, Redford Union
High School, in suburban Detroit, Michigan. At the University of
Toledo, she intended to walk on with the team. Her plans were
interrupted by ovarian cancer. Once she won that battle (after
losing 80 pounds, or 36 kg, and struggling with harsh chemo),
she reenrolled in college at East los Angeles College. There,
she convinced football coach Bobby Godinez to let her play as
a wide receiver and cornerback. She played three games with
them. Then she sent a tape of her highlights to over two hundred
four-year schools, hoping to find a program. Footage of her was
used in a Super Bowl commercial for Toyota during Super Bowl
lIII on February 3, 2019.
She chose to play for Central Methodist University in Fayette,
Missouri, under coach David Calloway. Harris is the first woman,
and first Black woman, to play a skills position in college football
on a scholarship.

In 2019, Harris told an interviewer that she was aiming to be the
first woman player in the National Football League (NFL). “If it
doesn’t happen, I can just pave the way for another little girl to
come out and play, or even start a women’s NFL,” she said.

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