Stanford, 1994
• 1993 Academic All-America® Third Team – Women's At Large
Julie Foudy was inducted into the CoSIDA Academic All-America® Hall of Fame in 2007.
Soccer legend Julie Foudy played her first international game for the United States at age 17 against France in Rimni, Italy in July of 1988. From early on it was clear that Foudy was a force to be reckoned with, fated to be an integral part of the world football community and inspiration to young female athletes.
Foudy’s momentum grew as she attended college at Stanford University and played midfielder as the team’s three-year MVP. In her first season she was named the 1989 Soccer America Freshman of the Year. In 1991 she was Soccer America Player of the Year and all four years with the Stanford Cardinal she was an NSCAA All-American, leading her team to the NCAA tournament each year. Upon graduation Foudy had scored 53 goals and 32 assists all while earning a bachelor’s degree in biology. She was accepted into Stanford Medical School, but deferred acceptance to continue her soccer career.
Foudy continued her career with the US Women’s National Team, making appearances in the 1991, 1995, 1999, and 2003 Women’s World Cups and the 1996, 2000, and 2004 Olympic games. All in all her play amounted to 24 World Cup Games, 12 World Cup qualifiers, and 16 Olympic games. As a great leader, Foudy led her team as captain in the 2000 and 2004 Olympics and the 2003 World Cup. During her career as midfielder, she appeared in an astounding 271 games, making her the third most capped player in soccer history. In addition, Foudy played in the Tyreso Football Club in Sweden in 1994, the amateur club the Sacramento Storm, which won the 1993 and 1995 California State Amateur championships, the ISL’s elite W-League, and the Japanese professional league. Foudy was a founding member of the Women’s United Soccer Association, helped build the popularity of the 1999 World Cup Championship team and became heavily active to revive it after it was disbanded. She played 59 regular season games for the WUSA San Diego Spirit as well as one WUSA playoff game and was a second-team all-star in each of her three seasons. She played her last WUSA game on December 8, 2004 against Mexico in Carson, California, ending her soccer career with two World Cup Championships in 1991 and 1999, Olympic gold medals in 1996 and 2004, and an Olympic silver medal in 2000.
As an advocate for women’s rights, rights for children, and fair labor, Foudy’s efforts have expanded far beyond the field. She was President of the Women’s Sports Foundation, a charitable educational non-profit organization dedicated to advancing the lives of girls through sports. In 1997, she became the first American and woman to win the FIFA Fair Play Award, which acknowledged her trip to Pakistan in 1997 where she personally confirmed her shoe sponsor wasn’t using child labor. In 2005, though the WUSA unfortunately disbanded, its demise prompted the founding of the charitable organization, the Bay Area Women’s Sport Initiative. As an active member, Foudy champions the participation of young girls in sports on the premise that the full benefits of sports in society cannot be achieved without women. The organization has been active in opposing the dilution of Title IX and has positively impacted the lives of young girls in underserved areas by involving them in sports. Her current endeavors include working as a soccer in-studio analyst for ESPN and the Julie Foudy Sports Leadership Academy for girls ages 12-18. Since the summer of 2006, the JFSLA camps have been equipping young girls with the ingredients to become leaders on the field and in life.
In 2007, she was inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame with former teammate, Mia Hamm, representing the first all-women class of inductees.