A midfielder who was one of the stars of the U.S. team that won the first Women’s World Cup in 1991, and who played on four NCAA champion teams at the University of North Carolina.
Higgins was the creative playmaker of that 1991 U.S. women’s team and started five of its six games in the World Cup, despite the fact that she was recovering from a stress fracture in one foot. The only game that she didn’t play was the last of the United States’ three first-round games, after it already had clinched a place in the quarterfinals.
In the final, it was Higgins’ free kick that Michelle Akers-Stahl headed into the net for the United States’ first goal in its 2-1 win over Norway. Higgins, who had made her first appearance in the U.S. national team in 1987, retired as a player after that game with 51 full international appearances, in which she scored four goals. At the time, those 51 caps were second only to Carin Jennings among U.S. women.
At North Carolina, Higgins was primarily a forward, and scored goals in the NCAA championship final in three different years, including three goals in North Carolina’s win over North Carolina State in the 1988 final.
In 1999, Higgins became women’s soccer coach at the University of Maryland.
Inducted in 2002.
