Los Angeles
Dreamers
The Official Gridball Site
The Californian's story
When plans to go transatlantic in Gridball were first discussed as early as 1948, the entire United States Pacific Coast went completely unconsidered. The idea of a British team travelling all the way across the United States was thought to be just impractical. The calls for a California team were just too strong and the Los Angeles Dreamers began play in 1955. Those first few years were tough for the Dreamers as they were forced to virtually go on tour to complete their away fixtures and then play in residence as the other teams came to them. Jet set travel came in the nick of time for trips to Los Angeles to become just another road trip. The Dreamers went for youth over experience, with a plan to build a dream team for the 60s. And with a couple of good seasons, things looked on track, until completely derailed by demotion in 1958. The Dreamers bounced back at the first attempt in 1959.
Los Angeles Dreamers
Formed 1954
Colours: Dark Purple
Feeder Teams: Glendale Jewels, Beverly Hills Stars, La Canada Flints, Bunker Hill Battlers, Harbor Gates
WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP Second Round 1957 & 1958
Open Cup
Record Appearances:
Marilyn Newmayer {84 Elite, 9 Junior 1954-1960}
Record Scorer:
Diane Roland {66 Elite, 1 Junior 1956-1961}
Record Victory
8-5 vs Newcastle {22nd August 1959}
Record Defeat
1-7 vs Willesden {1957}
Most Goals in a Game
4 - Diane Roland {6-1 vs Oklahoma 31st May 1958}
4 - Susan Moffitt {8-5 vs Newcastle 22nd August 1959}
Most Goals in a Season
20 - Diane Roland {1958}
Season History
1955 First Round
1956 First Round
1957 Second Round
1958 Second Round
1959 Demoted
1960 Second Division Promoted
Players of the Year
None
Young Players of the Year
None
Team of the Season
None
Golden Bat
None
Silver Bat
None
Bronze Bat
None
Nations Cup Champions
Sheila Morrison {United States 1959}
Elizabeth Meriwether {United States 1959}
Susan Moffitt {United States 1959}
Nations Cup Representatives
Elizabeth Meriwether {United States 1959-1961}
Susan Moffitt {United States 1959-1961}
Sheila Morrison {United States 1959-1961}
Victoria Perreau-Saussine {United States 1961}
Los Angeles Team
1st July 1961
3-2 at Lanarkshire
1961 WORLD RANKING:
Highest
Bairbri Dalton:
Player-Coach:
Age: 32
Born: Drogheda, Ireland 2nd May 1929
Rated: {1} Experienced
Former Miss Ireland. Took charge in 1960 and instantly got the team promoted. Won the title as a player in 1953 with Dublin.
Jacqueline Chase:
Netminder:
Age: 20
Born: Los Angeles 22nd November 1940
Rated: {3} Good
Appearances: 14 {1961}
Joined from school in '58. Made her debut this season.
Judy Barto:
Left Guard:
Age: 21
Born: El Monte 14th September 1939
Rated: {4} Very Good
Appearances: 80 Elite, 9 Second Division
Sixth year with the Californians.
Mitzi Gage:
Right Guard:
Age: 22
Born: Newark, New Jersey 14th May 1939
Rated: {5} Excellent
Appearances: 14, Goals 1 {1961}
Signed from Newark this season.
Barbara Jameson:
Sweeper:
Age: 24
Born: Chicago, Illinois 18th April 1937
Rated: {4} Very Good
Appearances: 14 {1961}
Played in 1/4 Finals for Plymouth in 1957
Victoria Perreau-Saussine:
Centre:
Age: 20
Born: Albany, California 26th September 1940
Rated: {8} Superstar
Appearances: 86 Elite, 20 Second Division. Goals 10 Elite, 3 Second Division {1957-1961}
Played in 1/4 Finals in 1958
Susan Moffitt:
Shooter:
Age: 21
Born: Los Angeles 29th September 1939
Rated: {6} World Class
Appearances: 48 Elite, 9 Second Division. Goals 15 Elite, 11 Second Division {1957-1961}
USA Nations Cup Winner 1959
Diane Roland:
Shooter:
Age: 21
Born: Los Angeles 22nd March 1940
Rated: {5} Excellent
Appearances: 78 Elite, 9 Second Division. Goals 65 Elite, 1 Second Division {1956-1961}
USA Nations Cup Winner 1959
Los Angeles Legends
Sheila Morrison: 69 appearances, 2 goals {1955-1959} - Supergrid '58 Quarter Finalist
Victoria Perreau-Saussine: 67 appearances {+9 Lower Division}, 21 goals {+3 Lower Division} {1955-1959} - Supergrid '58 Quarter Finalist
Victoria Perreau-Saussine
Gridball 1958 Quarter Finalist
United States International {1961}
Date and place of Birth: 26th September 1940, Albany, California
Age: 20 {Stats taken August 26th 1961}
Position: Centre Height 5' 7"
Appearances: 67 Elite, 9 Junior {1957-1961}
Goals: 21 Elite, 3 Junior {1957-1961}
United States International {1961} {2 Appearances}
Joined the Los Angeles Dreamers straight from High School in 1956, spending a season in the youth and reserve ranks before making her debut, when still just sixteen years old in the March 1957 in a qualifying group held in Kiel, losing 0-1 to the hosts on her debut. She went on to score against Belfast to help the Dreamers win their group and reach the competition proper, where they reached the second round.
It was the following year where she emerged as a potential star
of the future, playing at Centre in a team of young promising players, which included Elizabeth Meriwether and Sheila Morrison. Perreau-Saussine found herself lining up in a side consisting entirely of players aged twenty and under as they played with a youthful fearless attitude, which took them to the Quarter-Finals for the first time in the club's history.
Sadly, a lack of experience cost them as they fell behind within two minutes, ultimately losing 0-2 to Plymouth and never posing a threat. With such a young side, the tipsters were making strong predictions for Perreau-Saussine and her Dreamer team mates in 1959 but in her own words, "I think we read the press. They were saying we were gonna win the whole thing, and that was probably too much for us. We were a team of teenagers and didn't have any experienced leaders to keep us calm when we lost a game. I think we started to panic and it just mase us worse." Instead of making a tilt at the title, the Dreamers suffered a shock demotion to the newly created Second Division. Worse still for Perreau-Saussine was that, while three of her team mates were called up to the Victorious United States Nation's Cup team, she was left out.
While some of her promising team mates accepted the raft of offers from top clubs to stay in the Elite, Victoria endeared herself to Californian fans by opting to stay and help them regain their Elite status, which they did at the first attempt in 1960. Her reward was a call up to the USA National team and to become a leader in a Dreamer's side on course for their second appearance in the Supergrid Quarter Finals.
{Post 1961 - No Gridball spoilers - In 1991, Perreau-Saussine ran for the position of chair of the American Gridball Association but was not elected. She ran a further four times during the 90s without being selected. She married in 1985 and had two children in her forties. }
Sheila Morrison
Nations Cup Winner {United States 1959}
Gridball 1958 Quarter Finalist
United States International {1960}
Date and place of Birth: 26th February 1940, Inglewood, California
Age: 21 {Stats taken August 6th 1961}
Position: Right Guard Height 5' 8.5"
Appearances: 69 {1955-1959}
Goals: 2 {1957}
Joined Monmouthshire {1960} {19 Appearances, 1 Goal}
United States International {1960} {1 Appearance}
Morrison was developing into a talented Tennis player as she approached her teens, with a career on the junior circuit expected of her, until the Dreamers plan of 'pick em young' saw her recruited into their youth ranks when just fourteen in 1954.
From a host of talented, golden tanned, California youngsters, she was selected as one of a trio considered good enough to make their first team debuts in the Dreamers first ever senior
Game, a Championship qualifier in Mississippi on March 9th 1955. Morrison had celebrated her fifteenth birthday just two weeks before, and yet still wasn't the youngest member of the side, that honour going to fourteen year old future star, Katherine St John, while a future World Gridballer of the Year, Elizabeth Meriwether completed the teen trio. All three showed their future potential in a comfortable 3-0 victory that helped take the Dreamers into the Championship proper.
Morrison made ten appearances in her debut season, and twelve more the year after that before scoring her first ever goal in the 1957 campaign, where the Dreamers progressed to the last sixteen for the first time. In 1958 Morrison and the team's upward trajectory continued as they reached their first Quarter Final, where they lost 0-2 in Plymouth.
Hopes were high for a tilt at the title itself in 1959 and yet the pressure told on a young team who, instead failed to get out of their group and then, worse still suffered demotion in the play-offs. While her club career appeared to be going backwards, Internationally, she enjoyed the greatest day of her career as the USA defeated Wales to clinch the Nations crown.
There was little chance of a player of Morrison's quality staying in the Second tier and it was just a question of where she would go, with Houston and St Louis considered the favourites for her signature. However, an opportunity for her newlywed actor husband, Steve Inhat to carve out a career in Britain led to the decision to join a club across the pond, although the eventual selection of Welsh side, Monmouthshire was something of a shock as they'd rarely troubled the title challengers.
Despite the glamourous Californian having been part of the US team that denied Wale the World crown two years earlier, she became an instant hit with the South Wales fans, assisting in the team coming close to making the Supergrid play-offs in her first season in 1960. At the time of writing they're on course for a '61 Quarter Final spot.
{Post 1961 - No Gridball spoilers - Her husband went on to enjoy a TV career playing Americans on British shows as well as returning home to appear in an episode of Star Trek before his early death from a heart attack on Sheila's 32nd Birthday in 1972. She retired from Gridball in 1975 and began working behind the scenes in British Television, marrying a game show host in 1977. They divorced in 1983, by which time she was establishing herself as an artist, displaying across the UK and opening her own gallery in Wales. She has two sons from her first marriage, the elder of which was ranked Welsh number two at Tennis in the mid 1980s. In February 2024 she will celebrate her 84th Birthday and regards Wales as her spiritual home}