I’ve been treking up I-81 to Oneonta, NY, since 1992 in support of our National Soccer Hall of Fame. Whether it was presenting papers at the occasional Hall Symposium, being inducted in 1996, or serving on the Hall’s Board of Directors for six years, I’ve enjoyed every moment of my involvment with our national soccer shrine.
But the 2007 inductions floored even this veteran of the soccer wars. We inducted Mia Hamm and Julie Foudy on Sunday, August 26 as only the 6th and 7th women to be enshrined in the Hall. We started late inducting the women, having previously taken in April Heinrichs, Michelle Akers, Karin Jennings Gabarra, Shannon Higgins Cirovski, and Carla Overbeck. To the sport’s credit, we are one of the only gender-free Halls of Fame in America. No women players in baseball, football, or hockey, although the women have their own Basketball Hall.
The Mia nd Julie Show
What made 2007 special was the presence of Mia and Julie, their families, and the vast entourage of young soccer players and their families who made the pilgimage to see their own heroes honored with a Hall of Fame red jacket.
Mia Hamm knew the day was more than merchandise and marketing by the Hall. She regarded it as a wonderful honor, and this basically shy athlete reflected on her fame:
"There’s not a more humbling experience to walk into a stadium and to see so many girls wearing your jersey…. I am so proud of that and I hope you can see that every time I took the field."
Hamm and Foudy both spoke to the record crowd of 5,000 on the Hall’s Oneonta campus, many of them youngsters, as the Hall honored the two women who were the bedrock of the U.S. team that won two World Cups and two Olympic gold medals from 1991 to 2004.
Other inductees were Alan Rothenberg, President of the U.S. Soccer Federation from 1990 to 1998, who superbly organized the 1994 World Cup and subsequently helped launch Major League Soccer in 1996. The final inductee, All-Star defender Bobby Smith, played alongside Pele for the Cosmos in the North American Soccer League.
Hamm and Foudy, along with their illustrious teammates Michelle Akers, Kristine Lilly, Brandi Chastain, and Joy Fawcett formed the nucleus of one of the most storied teams in women’s sports history. The squad won the inaugural Women’s World Championship in 1991, the World Cup in 1999, and the 1996 and 2004 Olympics.
Hamm and Foudy helped to lift women’s soccer to unforeseen heights, and encouraged other nations to invest in the sport.
Hamm, 35, brought her 5-month-old twin daughters, Grace and Ava, and her husband, Los Angeles Dodger Nomar Garciaparra, Los Angeles Dodgers baseball star, to the Induction Ceremony. Foudy, 36, a TV soccer analyst, was accompanied by husband Ian Sawyer and their 7-month-old daughter, Isabel.
The Hall of Fame Game
After the Inductions, Foudy and Hamm played in the Hall of Fame pro game between the Washington Freedom and the Connecticut Reds, with the young girls still crying out, “Mia, Mia” and “Julie, Julie.” Both women acquitted themselves well on the field, to the constant cheers of the youngsters in attendance. The aura surrounding these outstanding women sportspersons lives on!
Len Oliver
Director of Coaching
Sept. 22, 2007
