Cal Sports Report

The Cal 100: No. 47 -- Brandi Chastain

Chastain had one standout soccer season at Cal, and she produced the most iconic moment in U.S. soccer history

Jake Curtis

We count down the top 100 individuals associated with Cal athletics, based on their impact in sports or in the world at large – a wide-open category. See if you agree.

No. 47: Brandi Chastain

Cal Sports Connection: Chastain was a member of the 1986 Cal women's soccer team that reached the NCAA tournament quarterfinals.

Claim to Fame: She was the leading scorer for Cal in 1986 and was named national freshman of the year. She later led Santa Clara to two women's soccer Final Fours. Chastain was a member of U.S. teams that won two gold medals in the women's World Cup and two gold medals in the Olympics. She produced the most iconic moment in U.S. women's soccer history

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We debated whether to include Brandi Chastain in our Cal 100 since she played only one season at Cal and is better know for her time at Santa Clara. However, she had a significant role in Cal’s strong 1986 season, and her impact on women’s soccer and on women’s sports in general is unquestioned.

She produced the most iconic moment in U.S. soccer history, and you could make a case that no American has ever had a bigger impact on women’s sports. And she continues to have an impact as one of the founding members of Bay FC, a new women’s soccer team that will begin play in 2024.

The fact that she was a key member of two U.S. World Cup championship teams and two Olympic gold-medal-winning U.S. squads is merely window dressing alongside that split-second in Pasadena, Calif., in 1999.

Chastain first became a star at Cal, though. As a freshman for the Golden Bears she played forward, led the team with 15 goals and was named national freshman of the year by Soccer America. She helped Cal go 16-3-1 that season, including a 4-0 victory over Santa Clara, and reach the quarterfinals of the NCAA tournament.

However, she missed the next two seasons after having surgery to repair torn anterior-cruciate ligament (ACLs) in both knees. When she was ready to return, she enrolled at Santa Clara in 1999, helping the Broncos to two national semifinal berths, leading the nation in scoring in 1990 with 22 goals (50 points) and being named national player of the year by several outlets.

Chastain went on to play for the U.S. national team from 1988 through 2004, and she scored 30 goals playing primarily in the defender and occasionally as a midfielder. She was an integral part of three American Olympic teams and three U.S. World Cup squads, winning Olympic gold medals in 1996 and 2004 and World Cup gold medals in 1991 and 1999.

But it was her penalty kick to beat China in the World Cup championship game before  90,185 people at the Rose Bowl on July 10, 1999, that that etched her name in sports history

Chastain celebrated by taking off her jersey and falling to her knees in a sports bra. A photo of that moment was on the cover of Sports Illustrated, and the New York Times called it the "most iconic photograph ever taken of a female athlete." 

A similar photo taken from a different angle appeared on the cover of Newsweek:

The celebration had two consequences:

---The next year, FIFA made it an offense resulting in a yellow card for men or women to celebrate by removing their jerseys.

---In 2019, a bronze statue of Chastain’s celebration was placed outside the Rose Bowl.

That's having an impact.

Chastain played on a number of professional teams throughout the world, and her name was back in the news in 2023 when she became one of the founding members of Bay FC, the San Francisco Bay’s new entry in the National Women’s Soccer League, which begins play in 2024.

However, she will be remembered for that one moment in Pasadena.

The Cal 100: No. 48 -- Joe Starkey

Cover photo of Brandi Chastain by Darren Yamashita, USA TODAY Sports

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Jake Curtis
JAKE CURTIS

Jake Curtis worked in the San Francisco Chronicle sports department for 27 years, covering virtually every sport, including numerous Final Fours, several college football national championship games, an NBA Finals, world championship boxing matches and a World Cup. He was a Cal beat writer for many of those years, and won awards for his feature stories.

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