A dandy of a Dandelion comes forth
Going back to our story Sunday in the Daily News on the Los Angeles Amazons of the Women's Pro Football League, we made the reference to the first real attempt at a female pro pigskin team -- the L.A. Dandelions, who started in 1973 at Long Beach Veterans Stadium and lasted until the late '70s with another ownership change.
Ann Beebe, currently the radio producer for USC football and basketball on KSPN-AM (710), will now admit she was one of the original Dandelions as a punter and kicker.
"It's 30 years later, and I'm still hesitant to let this out ... I guess that shows you how far women's football has come," Beebe said.
"We were paid $25 per game, for a whole season and a half, at which point we had to play for free if we wanted to continue. Our owner did pay to fly us to two road games, however -- Oklahoma City and Albuquerque. We played a game in the Dodgers minor league ballpark against Dallas."
Beebe said the highlight of the whole experience was when several players from her team were in a TV movie, "The Oklahoma City Dolls," starring Susan Blakely, Eddie Albert and Waylon Jennings *and Mike Walden as the game announcer). The team photo above is of many Dandelion players portraying the Dolls' opponents, Minnesota Maids. Beebe, as No. 73, is shown here as a punter.
That's where they really made some money.
"We had about a week's work and made more money on that movie than we ever did playing for real -- which still was not much," she said. "I learned how to kick a field goal over one weekend by watching NFL games, and kicked one in the movie."
Beebe says she is still in touch with Dandelions quarterback Rose Lowe and has fond memories of playing for coach Aubrey Duncan, who is now the Amazons' head coach.
"Rose has actually been to some Amazon practices but I haven't made it by yet," Beebe said. "If I ever get there, I want to show Aubrey I can still kick a football."
In the team photo above, that's Beebe (73) in the top row next to Lowe (12).
Another member of the Dandelions was a linebacker named Barbara Patton.
"She used to bring her young son to practice," said Beebe. "He grew up to be a real NFL linebacker."
That would be Marvcus Patton, a former star at UCLA who played for Buffalo, Washington and Kansas City during a 13 year career in the NFL.
Beebe says she still has a VHS video of some of Dandelion history and remembers when NBC did a story on a "Dateline"-type show. Channel 9 reporter Mark Steines, who is now with "Entertainment Tonight," also did a three night feature about 10 years ago.
As for reading the story on the Amazons, Beebe said: "I'm not sure I would have the dedication today's players seem to have. I'm glad they are still trying to make it happen."
Beebe has produced USC football and basketball since 1998. She also did Clippers games from 1986 to 2006 and worked on the KWKW Dodgers broadcasts from 1999-2004. She's also worked at KRLA, KHJ, KRTH and did 20 years for ABC Watermark on American Top 40 with Casey Kasem.