The wife who became pro football's first woman player by holding for her husband

The Orlando Panthers had a kicker problem. Steve Palinkas had a tryout, but his regular holder could not make it. His solution was his wife, Pat, who had practiced holding for him. On August 15, 1970, that small favor turned into a professional-football first: Pat became the first woman to play in a professional football game. 12

Palinkas was not signed as a kicker, quarterback, or novelty sideline guest. She was the holder: the player who receives the snap and sets the ball for a place-kicker. The Orlando Panthers of the Atlantic Coast Football League signed her alongside Steve, making them a husband-and-wife professional football team. 13

That league detail matters. This was professional American football, but it was not the NFL. The Panthers were a minor-league club, and Palinkas's job was one narrow part of a kicking play. The oddity is precisely that the first woman crossed the line through a specialist role that is easy to overlook until the ball is on the ground and a defender is charging at it.

On the field, the Panthers were leading the Bridgeport Jets 11–0 late in the first half at Orlando's Tangerine Bowl. About 12,000 people were there for the moment. Palinkas and Steve walked out for an extra-point attempt, and a football curiosity became a live test of whether the arrangement would work. 14

Palinkas was nervous enough to take half of a tranquilizer before the game. Then the snap arrived. She bobbled the ball, and a 235-pound Bridgeport linebacker, Wally Florence, fell on it. Earlier, Florence had threatened to "break her neck" because he thought she was making a spectacle of a man's game. 12

The detail that makes the scene feel almost scripted came just before the mistake. Palinkas turned to her husband and asked:

She was ready enough to get hit, embarrassed enough to cry on the sideline, and steady enough to return. The first play failed loudly; the experiment did not.

Palinkas held the ball twice more that night, and both conversions succeeded. TIME's account says every conversion after the botched opening attempt was successful. That is the useful correction to the usual version of the story: her debut was a collision and a media event, but it was also a functioning specialist performance. 24

The Panthers' decision made the couple instant celebrities. Palinkas appeared on The Tonight Show, What's My Line?, To Tell the Truth, and The Merv Griffin Show; Walter Cronkite also featured the pair on the CBS Evening News. She later said she stopped enjoying the job when she was holding for someone else after Steve injured his leg. 12

That is why August 15 belongs in the odd-corner of sports history. A barrier-breaking first arrived through the least glamorous job on a scoring unit: catch the snap, place the ball, and absorb whatever happens next. Pat Palinkas did all three in front of a full stadium, and her only bad snap became part of the proof that she had really been there.