Sarah Fuller has become the first woman to play for an American football team in a major conference, donning the pads and cleats for Vanderbilt University.
Key points:
- Sarah Fuller is the goalkeeper for Vanderbilt’s championship-winning women’s soccer team
- A COVID-19 outbreak left the coach of the football team looking for a new kicker, and Fuller filled in
- Other women have played for men’s teams in college football, but not in a “major conference football game”
Unfortunately, Vanderbilt was beaten so soundly by the University of Missouri — 41-0 — that she only got on the field for the second-half kick-off, but it was enough to make history.
Fuller, the goalkeeper for Vanderbilt’s championship-winning women’s soccer team, got the call-up from head coach Derek Mason.
Vanderbilt plays in the South-Eastern Conference (SEC), making Fuller the first woman to play for a team in one of the “Power Five” college conferences, which account for the biggest football programs in the country.
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Women have kicked for college teams in the past — including Liz Heaston in 1997, Tonya Butler and Katie Hnida in 2003, and April Goss in 2015 — but never for a “Power Five” school.
The National Collegiate Athletic Association, the organisation that runs the lucrative college sports scene in the US, described her as the first woman to play “in a major conference football game”.
“It’s just so exciting, the fact that I can represent the little girls out there who wanted to do this or thought about playing football, or any sport,” she said after the game.
“And [if] it encourages them to be able to step out and do something big like this [that’s] awesome.”
Vanderbilt’s inability to get within field-goal range or within touching distance of the Missouri Tigers on the scoreboard meant Fuller’s only involvement was kicking off in the second half, with her team already trailing 21-0.
Wearing number 32 and with “Play like a girl” written on the back of her helmet, Fuller’s short kick-off was collected by the Tigers and she left the field.
Some looking to pillory Fuller on social media criticised it as a miscue, but as NFL coach Ron Rivera pointed out, it was a “perfect mortar kick” (also known as a “pooch” or “squib” kick) to try to catch Missouri off guard and avoid giving them a chance to return the kick in the open field.
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Superstar NFL quarterback Russell Wilson and US soccer legend Mia Hamm were among those watching from home who praised Fuller for breaking new ground.
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Soccer final more stressful for star goalkeeper
Despite admitting to feeling a responsibility to represent all women trying to break through in traditionally patriarchal fields, she said she was more nervous when she was in goal for Vanderbilt in their 3-1 win over Arkansas in last week’s SEC championship soccer game.
“Honestly, I was just really calm … I was really excited to step out on the field and do my thing,” she said of the outing in pads.
“I just want to tell all the girls out there that you can do anything you set your mind to, you really can. And if you have that mentality all the way through, you can do big things.”
A COVID-19 outbreak and potential replacement players leaving for their holiday break left Vanderbilt head coach Derek Mason needing to “think outside the box” in filling a need, so he called up the coach of the soccer team, who put Fuller’s name forward.
“In practice, the guys were impressed the first day she came out, she put the ball through the uprights, she was fearless and she plays football the same way she plays soccer,” Mason said.
Mason also stressed that it was not an empty gesture to try and get publicity, but one of the university’s top athletes filling a need for the football team.
“She wasn’t trying to set some landmark event. She was just trying to help really where she could,” he said.
