21 year old Sarah Fuller, known around the Vanderbilt Commodores campus as a star soccer goalkeeper is now famous nationwide because of one single kick for a completely different sport. On November 28th, 2020 Fuller became the first female student-athlete to play in a major conference college football game,opening for Vanderbilt in the second half against Missouri. She is not only the first woman to play in the SEC but also the first to do so in any power 5 football game. As a history-making football player and champion soccer player Fuller is using her new fame to inspire others to “play like a girl.”
This senior in college quickly stepped up to the plate when asked by the coach of the Vanderbilt football team, Ken Masuhr, to kick for the team over Thanksgiving weekend. Fuller had hardly any time to prepare for the role, making her debut on the field mere days after the call-up.
While Fuller isn’t the first woman to play in a college football game, it is still a rare occurrence and an outstanding feat! She follows in the footsteps of players such as Liz Heaston, Tonya Butler, and Katie Hnida who were the first women to score in a college football game (in 1997), kick a field goal in an NCAA game (in 2003), and score at the FBS level (in 2003), respectively.
Sarah Fuller is not shy about this accomplishment, hoping that her attitude can inspire others to follow her and her predecessors’ footsteps by “playing like a girl.” This phrase originates from the name of a nonprofit organization that encourages girls to play sports and open doors for STEM opportunities. Fuller’s history-making kick was not only an inspiration to many, but it also brought light to this female-empowering organization.
As the most famous walk-on in college football this season, Fuller says that she is going to stick with the team as a kicker! This kick has not only changed her life but has also impacted the entire country through encouraging change against the inherent patriarchal boundaries which infect our country and how to change that. This kick symbolizes something important. Fuller did what many females thought about but were told was impossible. While she was not the first woman to kick in a football game, her influential actions opened up the whole nation’s eyes to the type of gender-divided world we live in. Today more than ever before, average Americans are trying to find ways to break the barriers of gender inequality to create a world in which women can be the starting players on a football team if they so wish.