Elizabeth Heaston Thompson (born 1977) is an American athlete who is the first woman ever to score in acollege football game. She accomplished this feat on October 18, 1997 as aplacekicker for theWillamette Bearcats football team ofWillamette University, which then competed in theNational Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) for small colleges.^[2] She also played women'ssoccer for Willamette as adefender.^[3] Heaston's accomplishment was widely noted by the media and the sports community.

Heaston was raised inRichland, Washington.^[4][5] After graduating she enrolled atWillamette University, where she became a starsoccer player, earningAll-American honorable mention in 1996 and 1997.^[6] In 1997 she joined the football team as a backupplacekicker. She became the first woman to play and score points in a college football game during a match between Willamette andLinfield 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 twoextra points as her team won 27-0.^[6] The accomplishment resulted in interviews withThe Today Show andCBS This Morning.^[7]

Heaston's football career lasted two games; she made two of fourextra point attempts.^[8][9] Her jersey hangs on display at theCollege Football Hall of Fame.^[10]

The following year Heaston played only soccer at Willamette, and graduated with a biology degree in 1999.^[6] She attended graduate school atPacific University where she earned a doctorate in optometry and met her husband Trent Thompson.^[6] She has one daughter, Isabella, and a son and lives and works in her hometown ofRichland, Washington, where she works at her father's optometry office along with her husband.^[6]

• 1997 Linfield vs. Willamette football game
• Tonya Butler, the first female to score afield goal in an NCAA game
• Sarah Fuller, the first woman to score in aPower Five conferences football game
• Katie Hnida, the first woman to score in aDivision I-A game
• Ashley Martin, the first female to score in an NCAA game, and the first to score in aDivision 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

• 1977 births
• Living people
• American football placekickers
• American women's soccer players
• Women's association football defenders
• Female players of American football
• 20th-century American sportswomen
• Sportspeople from Richland, Washington
• Pacific University alumni
• Willamette Bearcats football players
• 21st-century American women
• Willamette Bearcats women's soccer players

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use mdy dates from July 2024