ridgway-melanie-nfl-mainMELANIE RIDGWAYridgway-melanie-nfl-face

Real Name: Melanie Ridgway

Identity/Class: Human

Occupation: Unrevealed;
    former student

Group Membership: Windsor Middle School football team

Affiliations: NFL Superpro (Phillip Grayfield)

Enemies: Instant Replay;
    at least formerly the Board of Education

Known Relatives: Mark Ridgway (father), Lynn Ridgway (mother), Phillip Grayfield (maternal uncle; NFL Superpro)

Aliases: "Jockette" (nickname for herself)

Base of Operations: Unrevealed;
    at least formerly her parents home in Windsor, Connecticut

First Appearance: NFL Superpro#9 (June, 1992)ridgway-melanie-nfl-full-blue

Powers/Abilities: Melanie was an athletic young woman, able to play competitively (and likely better than most) against similarly aged young men in football. 

Height: Unrevealed (at the time of the story, she was significantly shorter than her mother, so even if Lynn was like 5'9", I'd think Melanie was more like 4'10", which is about right for an 11-12 year old girl)
Weight: Unrevealed (at the time of the story, based on the above, about 85-90 lbs.)
Eyes: Brown (they looked blue in some images)
Hair: Brown

History:ridgway-melanie-nfl-face-blue

(NFL Superpro#9 (fb) - BTS) - Melanie played on Windsor Middle School's football team until some of the other parents complained that a girl shouldn't be on the field with their sons, and the Board of Education ruled that only boys could play tackle football.

(NFL Superpro#9 (fb) - BTS) - Melanie's parents and Coach Rich Henchey spoke to the Board, which refused to change its ruling. 

    Although frustrated, Melanie felt that it was pointless to fight the decision, and she rationalized that eventually the boys would get too big and strong for her, and she wouldn't be able to play with them anyway.

    Depressed and disappointed, Melanie became more withdrawn.

(NFL Superpro#9) - When her uncle Phil (secretly the superhero NFL Superpro) came to visit and gave her a new football, she quietly thanked him and took it up to her room. Phil followed her and questioned her change in behavior, and she explained how she was no longer allowed to play anymore. 

    Uncle Phil told her that what she wanted to do now mattered and that she shouldn't let anyone keep her from her dream, but she reminded him how he had dropped out of professional football and become a reporter after his injury. Apologizing, she nonetheless noted that sometimes you just had to accept reality.ridgway-melanie-nfl-profile-size-blue

(NFL Superpro#9 - BTS) - Phil met with Coach Henchey, who noted that he hadn't a choice in the matter as he had had to follow the Board's orders. 

(NFL Superpro#9) - Feeling bad that she hadn't thanked Uncle Phil properly for the football, Melanie learned from her mother that he was speaking to Coach Henchey. Taking the ball with her, she biked to school.

(NFL Superpro#9 - BTS) - Superpro's enemy Instant Replay suddenly appeared and assaulted Phil, who urged Henchey to get everyone else to safety. Phil evaded Instant Replay's attacks long enough to change into his Superpro costume.ridgway-melanie-nfl-bicycle

(NFL Superpro#9) - Melanie arrived at the school as Instant Replay repeatedly assaulted Superpro, who tried to keep the fight away from her. When Superpro dropped to his knees from the assault, Melanie threw her football, hitting Instant Replay in the chin.

    When Instant Replay threatened to kill her, the intimidated Melanie half-heartedly apologized, but the distraction allowed Superpro time to get back on his feet and punch Instant Replay away.

    Seeing Superpro's injuries, Melanie rushed to his side and was surprised to see that he was her Uncle Phil. Regaining his wits, Phil urged her away while he again confronted Instant Replay, who was eventually incapacitated via electrocution.

(NFL Superpro#9 (fb) - BTS) - Coach Henchey agreed to let Melanie back on the team while Phil planned to attend the next Board meeting in hopes of convincing them to reverse their decision.

(NFL Superpro#9) - Phil attended Melanie's practice, where she promised to keep his secret but noted that his return from his injury and becoming a super hero had re-convinced that she could do anything she wanted. She then had him autograph her football as "Superpro," and she went out for and caught a pass from him.

Comments: Created by Evan Skolnick, Jose Delbo, and Donald C. Hudson. 

    Maybe not playing tackle football saved Melanie from Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy.

    With the sliding timescale, as of the time of publication of this profile, the story would have occurred 6-7 years ago in Marvel Time, meaning if Melanie was 11-12 years old in this story, she would be 17-19 years old now...not that we're likely to see characters from this series in the future...but one never knows...

    There are a series of great images of Melanie, but they're covered in some gray-blue scale as part of some flashback-ish deal....those are the ones around the history text.

    Melanie previously had a sub-profile in the NFL Superpro profile back in 4/11/2007.

    This profile was completed 7/04/2021, but its publication was delayed as it was intended for the Appendix 20th anniversary 's celebratory event.

Profile by Snood.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Melanie Ridgway should be distinguished from:


images: (without ads)

NFL Superpro#9, pg. 4, panel 4 (face);
        pg. 6, panel 2 (full; bluish-coloring);
            panel 3 (mom-size reference; bluish-coloring);
            panel 4 (face; bluish-coloring);
            panel 5 (biking)
        pg. , panel 4 (football uniform)
       

Appearances:
NFL Superpro#9 (June, 1992) - Evan Skolnick (writer), Jose Delbo (penciler), Donald C. Hudson (inker), David Wohl (editor)

First posted: 09/14/2021
Last updated: 09/11/2021

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

Non-Marvel Copyright info
All other characters mentioned or pictured are ™  and © 1941-2099 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved. If you like this stuff, you should check out the real thing!
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Special Thanks to www.g-mart.com for hosting the Appendix, Master List, etc.!

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