ARLINGTON, Texas — Flag Football will debut as an Olympic sport when the games come to Los Angeles in 2028. But a local college will be one of the first to introduce the sport at the NCAA level.

Earlier this year, the University of Texas at Arlington announced Women’s Flag Football will be added as a varsity sport in the spring of 2027. It will be Texas’ first such Division I program and one of only six currently announced across the country.

But the pioneering spirit of UTA Mavericks football and giving women opportunities could be found nearly 50 years earlier, when the school fielded its own traditional football team.

The football program lasted from 1959 to 1985, and despite holding their own against local rivals TCU and North Texas (named North Texas State at the time), the Maver

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