Top 50 Cal Pros: No 17 -- Brandi Chastain, World-Class Celebration

We are counting down Cal’s top 50 athletes based on their careers as post-collegiate professionals. Their performance as Golden Bears is not factored into the rankings.

17. BRANDI CHASTAIN

Year at Cal: 1985-86

Sport: Soccer

Pro teams: Shiroki FC (Japan), San Jose CyberRays, FC Gold Pride, California Storm, U.S. Women’s National Team

Age: 56

Hometown: San Jose, Calif.

Why we ranked her here: A prolific scorer in college, Chastain played defender or midfielder during her national team career. She made 192 international appearances (recording 30 goals and 26 assists), winning Olympic gold medals at the 1996 Atlanta Games — the first Olympics featuring women’s soccer — and in Athens in 2004. She also won a silver medal at Sydney in 2000. She was part of two World Cup titles in 1991 and 1999 (she was not on the U.S. roster for the ’95 World Cup). In qualifying for the 1991 World Cup, Chastain scored five consecutive goals in a win over Mexico. At the 1999 World Cup, held in the U.S., she scored an own goal in the quarterfinals against Germany but tied the score with a goal off a corner kick by Mia Hamm. The U.S. won the game 3-2 and beat Mexico 2-0 in the semifinals. The gold-medal game against China in front of 90,000 fans, including President Bill Clinton, at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena was scoreless through regulation and double golden goal extra time, and was decided by penalty kicks. Chastain scored the decisive penalty kick and responded with the most famous celebration in women’s sports history, pulling off her jersey to expose her sports bra, then going to her knees and thrusting two fists upward. The iconic moment made it to the cover on Sports Illustrated and Time magazines. She played professionally for one season in Japan, winning team MVP honors for Shiroki FC, three seasons for the San Jose CyberRays of the Women’s United Soccer Association and one season with FC Gold Pride in Women’s Professional Soccer. She also has coached and worked as a soccer analyst for NBC Sports. Chastain is a member of the U.S. National Soccer Hall of Fame and the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame.

Brandi Chastain at Cal | Photo courtesy of Cal Athletics

At Cal: Chastain played just one season for the Bears but she made it count, scoring 15 goals and earning All-America honors. She also was named national freshman of the year by Soccer America. After the season, she underwent surgery on both knees causing her to miss the next two seasons. She transferred to Santa Clara and led the Broncos to back-to-back NCAA Final Four appearances in 1989 and ’90. As a senior, Chastain led the nation in scoring and was named national player of the year.

Other: After her iconic goal in the 1999 World Cup, Chastain was named one of People magazine’s 25 Most Intriguing People of the year. Street and Smith’s magazine included her among the 100 Most Powerful People in Sports. She also appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman, the game show Jeopardy and threw out the opening pitch for games at Yankee Stadium and Wrigley Field.

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