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Liz Heaston
Elizabeth Heaston Thompson (born 1977) is an American athlete who is the first woman ever to score in a college football game. She accomplished this feat on October 18, 1997 as a placekicker for the Willamette Bearcats football team of Willamette University, which then competed in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) for small colleges.[2] She also played women's soccer for Willamette as a defender.[3] Heaston's accomplishment was widely noted by the media and the sports community. LifeHeaston was raised in Richland, Washington. After graduating she enrolled at Willamette University, where she became a star soccer player, earning All-American honorable mention in 1996 and 1997.[4] In 1997 she joined the football team as a backup placekicker. She became the first woman to play and score points in a college football game during a match between Willamette and Linfield College on October 18, 1997. The 5-foot-5-inch, 120-pound soccer player entered the game as a replacement kicker for Willamette and kicked two extra points as her team won 27-0.[4] The accomplishment resulted in interviews with The Today Show and CBS This Morning.[5] Heaston's football career lasted two games; she made two of four extra point attempts.[6][7] Her jersey hangs on display at the College Football Hall of Fame.[8] The following year Heaston played only soccer at Willamette, and graduated with a biology degree in 1999.[4] She attended graduate school at Pacific University where she earned a doctorate in optometry and met her husband Trent Thompson.[4] She has one daughter, Isabella, and a son and lives and works in her hometown of Richland, Washington, where she works at her father's optometry office along with her husband.[4] See also
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