{{short description|American athlete|bot=PearBOT 5}} {{Use mdy dates|date=July 2024}} {{Infobox college football player | name = Liz Heaston | image = | image_size = | caption = | currentnumber = 39<ref name="spotlight">{{cite web |url=http://www.willamette.edu/athletics/news/archive/2007/08/liz_heaston_99_gets_kicks_in_more_than_one_sport.php |publisher=Willamette University Athletics |title=Alumni Spotlight: Liz Heaston '99 Gets Kicks in more than One Sport |first=Jamie |last=Trimble |date=August 20, 2007 |accessdate=April 21, 2011}}</ref> | currentposition = Placekicker | birth_date = {{Birth year and age|1977}} | birth_place = Richland (WA) | heightft = 5 | heightin = 5 | weight = 120 | highlights = * First woman to play and score in college football | pastschools = * Willamette (1997–1999) | bowlgames = | fansites = | highschool = Richland }}
'''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.<ref>{{cite book |page=[https://archive.org/details/outstandingwomen0000wool/page/33 33] |year=1998 |publisher=Oryx Press |url=https://archive.org/details/outstandingwomen0000wool |url-access=registration |quote=+liz heaston +willamette. |title=Outstanding women athletes: who they are and how they influenced sports in America |isbn=1-57356-120-7 |author=Woolum, Janet}}</ref> She also played women's soccer for Willamette as a defender.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.wubearcats.com/hof/athletes/heaston?view=bio |title=Elizabeth Heaston '99 |publisher=Willamette Bearcats |access-date=February 26, 2023}}</ref> Heaston's accomplishment was widely noted by the media and the sports community.
==Life== Heaston was raised in Richland, Washington.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2018-10-12 |title=Local woman makes college football history in 1997 |url=https://www.nbcrightnow.com/archives/local-woman-makes-college-football-history-in-1997/article_8d853b41-874a-55d1-b7de-994851730582.html |access-date=2025-06-25 |website=NonStop Local Tri-Cities/Yakima |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |agency=Associated Press |date=1997-10-20 |title=Woman Kicks Extra Points |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1997/10/20/sports/woman-kicks-extra-points.html |access-date=2025-06-25 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> After graduating she enrolled at Willamette University, where she became a star soccer player, earning All-American honorable mention in 1996 and 1997.<ref name="wu" /> 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.<ref name="wu">{{cite web |url=http://www.willamette.edu/athletics/news/article/2007/08/liz_heaston_99_gets_kicks_in_more_than_one_sport.xml |title=Alumni Spotlight: Liz Heaston'99 Gets Kicks in more than One Sport |last=Timbrell |first=Jamie |date=August 20, 2007 |publisher=Willamette University |accessdate=2008-12-12}}</ref> The accomplishment resulted in interviews with ''The Today Show'' and ''CBS This Morning''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nbcrightnow.com/story/39277099/local-woman-makes-college-football-history-in-1997|title=Local woman makes college football history in 1997|date=October 12, 2018|first=Camila|last=Rios|accessdate=October 13, 2018|publisher=NZBC News Right Now-KNDU 25}}</ref>
Heaston's football career lasted two games; she made two of four extra point attempts.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.espn.com/page2/tvlistings/show29transcript.html |work=ESPN.com |title=Interview with Bob Ley}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E03EFDD163EF933A15753C1A961958260 |work=The New York Times |title=Woman Kicks Extra Points |date=October 20, 1997 |accessdate=May 11, 2010}}</ref> Her jersey hangs on display at the College Football Hall of Fame.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1998-oct-18-sp-33885-story.html |access-date=March 9, 2012 |title=College Football Week 7: In the Spotlight |date=October 18, 1998 |work=Los Angeles Times}}</ref>
The following year Heaston played only soccer at Willamette, and graduated with a biology degree in 1999.<ref name="wu" /> She attended graduate school at Pacific University where she earned a doctorate in optometry and met her husband Trent Thompson.<ref name="wu" /> 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.<ref name="wu" />
==See also== * 1997 Linfield vs. Willamette football game * Tonya Butler, the first female to score a field goal in an NCAA game * Sarah Fuller, the first woman to score in a Power Five conferences football game * Katie Hnida, the first woman to score in a Division I-A game * Ashley Martin, the first female to score in an NCAA game, and the first to score in a Division I game * Haley Van Voorhis, the first female to play a non-kicking position in an NCAA game at any level * List of female American football players
==References== {{Reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Heaston, Liz}} Category:1977 births Category:Living people Category:American football placekickers Category:American women's soccer players Category:Women's association football defenders Category:Female players of American football Category:20th-century American sportswomen Category:Sportspeople from Richland, Washington Category:Pacific University alumni Category:Willamette Bearcats football players Category:21st-century American women Category:Willamette Bearcats women's soccer players