Angelique Smith doesn’t separate work and play. It’s evident in her office, which is a large, corporate conference room directly attached to her personal living room. And it’s also evident in her career, being a professional football player and now the owner of the Chicago Winds, the city’s newest women’s football team.
This ownership makes Smith the first Black woman to hold a majority ownership stake in a professional sports franchise in Chicago.
“I was not trying to set that bar, but I am very happy to be able to,” Smith said. “Representation matters. Black women are not just players. We can be coaches. We can be in the boardroom. It’s something that I’m very proud of, and I hope it inspires other women to get into ownership.”
Smith grew up mainly in the western suburbs of Bellwood, and spent a lot of her youth on the West Side of Chicago, spending her summers in Austin and training at Tri-Star Gymnastics in Forest Park.
“What I love the most about the West Side is the community. Neighbors helping each other out. The block parties. The neighborhood kids. We did everything together from sunup to sundown,” Smith said.
It was there that she found her love for sports, learning new games from local kids and playing basketball in the alleys.
This led her to football, which she didn’t take seriously at first.
“Football for me has been more of a playground thing. I would play outside with the guys growing up and would be the best player out there. I’ve asked several times to try out for the Pop Warner football team for our neighborhood and I was always told ‘no’,” Smith said, because there was no girls team she could try out for.
Smith said this stung, especially as a die-hard Bears fan.
“It was my favorite sport that I could not play,” she said.
When Smith moved to California for college, she saw a flier advertising try-outs for a women’s football team, the Southern California Breakers.
“I felt at home the moment I put on those cleats,” she said.
Smith not only found home in the sport, but she also found it in her teammates.
“It was immediately like sisterhood, because we all shared that same childhood of wanting to play, but we’re also coming into a sport that we have no idea how to play. We’ve been spectators all of our lives,” said Smith.
Through community and lots of practice, Smith became great at the sport, eventually getting recruited to the National Team USA and playing with them for years.
Eventually she came back to Chicago, feeling that nagging feeling that many who grew up here eventually feel when they know it’s time to come home.
“My peers in California are like, ‘Oh, you’ll be back. There’s no way you know with the weather,’ and I’m like, ‘I guarantee I will not be back.’ And, now it’s year 13 of living in Chicago,” Smith said.
She went on to play for the Chicago Force, a women’s tackle football team in Chicago. There she continued to thrive, winning a number of titles including Defensive Lineman of the Year and Game Day MVP.
“My rookie season, we won a national championship,” Smith said.
Smith spent five years with the force, becoming more connected to both football and her team, which she was now starting to see as family.
When the team ended in 2017, Smith knew immediately that she wanted to start her own team.
“At our last team banquet, I was huddling with my besties on the team saying ‘Guys, we need to bring this back,’” said Smith.
She added that many of those friends in that huddle are now coaches or in leadership for the Chicago Winds.
Between 2017 and 2023, Smith had time to put the player in her to rest and start training to be an owner.
“You have to retrain your mind and your body to operate like a normal person, it’s tough,” she said.
The 2020 COVID-19 pandemic allowed Smith time to start thinking about owning her own team, allowing her to take that leap and start the Chicago Winds in 2023.
“I think it was just God’s timing, and he’s like, ‘Okay, enough dreaming. Let’s put this thing in motion,’” Smith said. “All those years of me being a player and witnessing different things like treatment between player and coaches, treatment between ownership and the team, and being a student of the game, I was able to bring it all together.”
Smith said she always knew she wanted the team to be based in Chicago.
“There’s nothing like a Chicago fan. We are the most loyal, in your face fan base,” she said. “With the energy that this city has, it deserves a women’s football team.”
The team is looking forward to connecting with the West Side community: Smith spending much of her childhood there, the Winds’ current office is in East Garfield Park, and one of its practice locations is in Columbus park in Austin.
“It’ll give the West Side something to cheer for. It would bring everyone together. And I think that’s beautiful. Why not do things on this side of the city?” Smith said.
They will do this by partnering with local businesses and hosting events in the community.
Another community that has been supporting the team is the Chicago women’s sports community, with teams like the Chicago Red Stars and the Chicago Sky offering advice and services.
“They’re so excited for the team to get here, and the Red Stars and Sky are also available to me if I have any questions or concerns,” she said “They also gave me the reassurance that each of those teams also started very small. The Chicago Sky players back in the day had to sell tickets to their friends and family.”
The Chicago Winds are expected to have their first game in April 2025 at the University of Chicago.
