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World Cup: Summer of ’99

Players, organizers and executives discuss the bold moves that made the 1999 Women’s World Cup unforgettable and transformed the U.S. team into pop culture icons.

A record crowd packed the Rose Bowl for the final.getty images

A few days before the first match of the 1999 Women’s World Cup, Brandi Chastain appeared on “Late Show with David Letterman.” Her teammates on the U.S. women’s national team had nicknamed her “Hollywood” and, living up to the designation, she jumped at the opportunity to be on the show.

The U.S. was hosting the monthlong women’s tournament for the first time and Letterman, an acknowledged soccer neophyte, had made the team a focal point on his show with a mix of silliness and admiration. Nightly mentions on a popular late-night talk show afforded the cachet that women’s soccer, and soccer in general, had rarely received in the U.S.

It was June 16, 1999, and, despite Letterman’s admiration, Chastain was largely an unknown to mainstream America. The team’s best-known player, Mia Hamm, had begged off an invitation to appear on the show, a characteristic move for the reluctant superstar, who, despite her endorsements, clung fast to her privacy.

A short time later — July 10, to be specific — everybody knew exactly who Chastain was: The muscular, poised player who blasted the winning penalty kick of the World Cup past China and then rejoiced by tearing off her jersey and, wearing cleats, shorts and what became the world’s most famous sports bra, clenched her fists in front of 90,000 fans at the Rose Bowl. The thrilling performance landed her on the cover of Newsweek, Time and Sports Illustrated.

Not bad for an event that was originally planned for small stadiums along the East Coast for fear of lack of interest. This wasn’t denigration by critics, it was denigration by the people in charge of promoting soccer to the world. FIFA, the international governing body in charge of the World Cup and the Women’s World Cup, feared financial losses if larger stadiums were used for the tournament.

Skeptics had plenty of ammunition. After all, when had women’s team sports ever truly broken out? Women had become stars in tennis, golf and Olympic sports including gymnastics, track and figure skating, but team sports was another matter. Would boys and men, in particular, pay attention? Would they watch on TV? Would they buy tickets?

Letterman wasn’t the only surprise women’s soccer acolyte that long-ago summer. By the time Chastain punched in the winning kick, more than 40 million Americans that afternoon watched parts of the final match. 

Ten days after the World Cup ended, Chastain was back on Letterman’s show, this time joined by Hamm and the rest of the team. In less than the span of a summer, a women’s soccer team had morphed into pop culture darlings. The team inspired a generation of girls to pursue athletic excellence at the same time they were collectively using their cleats to kick a stubborn glass ceiling in the sport.

Americans spent a lot of time in the days and months afterward trying to figure out what message Chastain was sending when she ripped off her jersey to celebrate the winning shot. Spoiler alert: She was merely following soccer scoring tradition.

“Twenty years later, you’re like, wow, I guess it was a pretty big moment,” team co-captain Julie Foudy told SBJ recently. “The thing that I find most remarkable is the number of times people still talk about it.”

Foudy paused. “Or that they think that I’m the one who took my shirt off: ‘No, that’s my naked friend Brandi …’”

Organizers wanted to use the largest venues. Here, coach Tony DiCicco announces the sites while flanked by players Mia Hamm (left), Kristine Lilly, Julie Foudy and Christine Pearce.getty images

SBJ spoke to the players on and off the field who hoped to make 1999 a milestone for women’s sports — and wound up achieving more than they dared dream.

How they did it, and what it was like, is best told in their own words. This is the story of a sports, and cultural, milestone.

Work began in 1997 to plan the tournament, select the stadiums and map out a marketing strategy. Organizers had successfully lobbied to put women’s soccer in the biggest venues for the first time in the sport’s history, but there were no guarantees it would work.

Aaron Heifetz, director of communications, 1999 Women’s World Cup: “When Marla [Messing] started putting together the organizing committee, we didn’t have any money, we didn’t have any tickets [sold], we didn’t have any sponsors. But they had a vision and Marla put together a good group of people, a lot of young people, a lot of young women. There was a time when Marla had to borrow from the U.S. Soccer Federation just to get everything started.”

Marla Messing, president and CEO, 1999 Women’s World Cup: “They gave us a $2 million loan, when we had no assets and no indication that we would be successful. Indeed, I may have been the only employee when we secured the loan from them. At the time, we all had hope, but no guarantee, that we would be able to repay the loan. But they were investing in women’s soccer and they were OK with that.”

Julie Foudy, midfielder and co-captain, 1999 USWNT: “U.S. Soccer had to convince FIFA to put it in big stadiums because [FIFA] didn’t want to assume the [financial] loss. So U.S. Soccer had to assume the [potential] loss. (Editor’s note: The 1999 World Cup ended up meeting the organizing committee’s projected surplus of between $2 million and $5 million.) So what does that tell you about the governing body’s willingness to support something that should be a standard-setter? This is when FIFA’s sitting on billions in reserves and they’re not willing to put on a Women’s World Cup as it should be. … That’s where I get irked.”

Alan Rothenberg, chairman, 1999 Women’s World Cup: “When we booked all the stadiums, we also booked them in advance for a potential rock concert, figuring if advance sales were bad we’d go out and get some performers to fill the house up. Thank God the advance sale was good enough that we never had to resort to doing that.” 

Media attention grew rapidly around the team. Mia Hamm is surrounded by reporters following a practice session.ap images

Robin Roylance , senior vice president of marketing, 1999 Women’s World Cup: “We really thought about what is going to make this event unique. The grassroots marketing efforts, going to all the soccer hotbeds across the country — basically, you set up a 10-by-10 tent on all the soccer fields. That’s your core audience. The more we thought about it, it was how can we make this bigger? Not just put on a world-class event, but inspire the next generation of athletes. We wanted to tap into the mainstream.”

Carla Overbeck, defender and co-captain, 1999 USWNT: “It wasn’t a burden. We were promoters of our sport. When they started targeting the big stadiums, we knew there was going to be work that went along with that to fill the stadiums. Our team genuinely liked being out in public doing clinics, meeting children. It was second nature to us and it just so happened to help [sell more tickets].”

Rothenberg: “We kept the ticket prices a lot lower than we had in 1994 [for the men’s World Cup]. And we weren’t really attracting a huge international audience. It was really domestic and family-oriented so the average ticket price was considerably less.”

June McIvor, chief operating officer, 1999 Women’s World Cup: “It wasn’t as expensive as the men’s World Cup, but we were aiming high, so [tickets] weren’t going to be dirt cheap. We sold them as packages at each venue and we made sure the U.S. played in each venue. If you wanted to see the U.S. play in Washington, D.C., you bought all the games in D.C. We leveraged the U.S. team.”

In March 1999, Messing spoke with reporters as part of a teleconference marking 100 days before the Women’s World Cup kicked off. She told the media that ticket sales had reached 260,000 with most of the major advertising yet to begin. Still, skeptical reporters peppered her with questions about whether any of the matches would need to be moved to smaller venues because of sluggish sales. She didn’t dismiss the possibility but, in the end, there would be no stadium downsizing.

Hamm’s memorable Gatorade ad with Michael Jordan made a statement that lasted well beyond the World Cup.

In May 1999, a month before the first game, Jere Longman of The New York Times reported sales of 388,000 — or 3.5 times the total for the entire Women’s World Cup in Sweden in 1995. Tickets sold faster as the Women’s World Cup started and the USWNT morphed into instant celebrities.

Foudy: “We felt like the Beatles for three weeks. We had no idea it would take off like that. When we walked into the last week of training in L.A. for the final and we’d literally get off the bus and it would be a tunnel of thousands of fans lining the way from the bus to the training pitch, and thousands of fans screaming the entire time, we were like, what is this? We barely even got 1,000 people at games before.” 

Ross Greenburg, executive producer of the documentary “Dare To Dream: The Story of the U.S. Women’s Soccer Team” and former president of HBO Sports: “These women were the ground zero of the women’s movement in many ways. After the 60s, it was this Title IX group that really forged a major impact in the 90s. The Mia Hamm commercial with Michael Jordan really set the tone for almost this second revolution for women post-60s. Their legacy is tied into the women’s movement much the same way that Jackie Robinson’s tied into civil rights.”

Hamm, the most decorated women’s soccer player in American history, was already landing endorsements before the 1999 World Cup, including a starring role in TV ads for Mattel’s line of soccer Barbie dolls. As part of the gold medal-winning team in 1996, Hamm began to break out with several inspirational ads for Nike about the importance of women in sports and gender equity. She pitched Pert Plus shampoo in TV spots in 1997 and, in June 1999, Nike founder Phil Knight put Hamm’s name on the shoe company’s largest building at its Oregon headquarters. 

The ad that made her a household name was for Gatorade, released in the spring of 1999 and pairing Hamm with fellow UNC Tar Heels alum Michael Jordan. Backed by the Broadway number “Anything You Can Do (I Can Do Better)” from “Annie Get Your Gun,” the spot ran relentlessly before, during and after the World Cup. It featured quick-cut competitions between Hamm and Jordan in not just soccer and basketball, but also fencing, tennis and track. It ends with the two athletes facing off in a judo match won by Hamm when she flips His Airness over her hip and on to the mat.

Cindy Alston, Gatorade vice president of equity development and communications: “It was such a fun experience. They had such natural chemistry. They joked, they hit it off, they had a lot of fun together. Those smiles and those laughs in that ad were not forced or scripted.”

Jere Longman, author of “The Girls of Summer: The U.S. Women’s Soccer Team and How it Changed the World” and New York Times sportswriter: “The photograph that emerged of [Chastain after scoring the winning penalty kick against China] on her knees in this exultant moment of joy with rippling muscles might be the most powerful moment for women’s sports. It seemed to show everything possible. … And [the] Gatorade commercial where Mia Hamm flipped Michael Jordan over her hip — I think those are probably the two most powerful photographs and videos showing the capability of female athletes.”

Alston: “That flip at the end, that was not scripted. I wish I could say that was my idea or my agency’s idea. They were just kind of standing around before we were giving them instructions about what to do. Thankfully, the camera was rolling. We were talking about do this, do that. We had a trainer there to explain [the sequences]. And she flipped him and that made the final cut.”

Tom Fox, Gatorade vice president for sports and event marketing: “I can remember walking into Soldier Field with David Bober, who was Mia’s agent at the time. (Editor’s note: The USWNT played its second match of the tournament on June 24, 1999, at Soldier Field, defeating Nigeria 7-1 in front of a crowd of 65,080.) The crowd was red, white and blue-kitted out. Most of them had Hamm shirts on and I remember Dave Bober looking around and soaking it all in. And he looks at me and says, ‘I’m Mia Hamm’s agent!’ We both just smiled and laughed. I don’t think anybody quite predicted what an impact that team was going to have, how they were going to captivate people’s hearts and minds.”

Crowds could not contain their patriotic pride.getty images

Foudy: “To see the impact mainstream media can have on a team in the course of a month and to live that. [NBC News anchor] Tom Brokaw, [ABC News anchor] Peter Jennings and the ‘Today’ show is here and [ESPN and future ‘Good Morning America’ anchor] Robin Roberts is coming. You could finally push the sport into the focus of the public. That was the most gratifying thing. It was important for not just girls, but young boys to see women doing these things.”

Organizers and players alike thought the American team, at minimum, needed to reach the final to keep the crowds showing up and to leave a lasting impression. Heifetz, the team’s public relations representative, would update the players on ticket sales from the front of the team bus each day as they went to practice. When he informed them that they would be playing in front of a sellout crowd — 78,972 fans — at Giants Stadium in the opening match, players began chanting his name in delight. 

At Jack Kent Cooke Stadium (now FedEx Field), the U.S. overcame an own goal by Chastain five minutes into the game and defeated Germany, 3-2, in the quarterfinals. The crowd of 54,642 included President Bill Clinton, first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton and their daughter, Chelsea. President Clinton also attended the final at the Rose Bowl on July 10, part of a crowd of 90,185 that set a record for a women’s sporting event.

Brandi Chastain knocks in the game winner.ap images

Dr. Colleen Hacker, mental skills coach, 1999 USWNT: “The day before [the final] Jules [Foudy] and Carla [Overbeck] took the team on a jog around Pasadena. There’s a homeless guy, or a guy that’s down and out, laying against a building early in the morning. And here’s the national team running by. I’ll never forget this: Here’s this guy laying down on the sidewalk and he’s going, ‘Y’all gonna shock the world?’ You know you’ve made it when that guy is going, ‘Y’all gonna shock the world?’ How cool is that? We were laughing about that all day: ‘Y’all gonna shock the world?’”

Roylance, the World Cup marketing executive: “I remember running around that stadium and people kept coming and coming and coming. It seemed like this stampede of people coming.”

JP Dellacamera, ESPN/ABC play-by-play on 1999 Women’s World Cup, who will fill the same role for Fox Sports at the 2019 tournament in France: “We were all zoned in, we were a part of history. Not because the women were in a final, but because they were selling out stadiums; they had more than 90,000 people at the Rose Bowl for a women’s soccer event. You had to look around the stadium to the red, white and blue. Women and men wore Mia Hamm and Kristine Lilly T-shirts. It was a fantastic day.”

McIvor, Women’s World Cup COO: “I remember the executive staff had red polyester blazers. In 90-degree heat, that was not ideal. … The stadium was packed, this was true of all the U.S. games. I worked the World Cup in 1994 and Major League Soccer, so I was used to a certain tone of the crowd. And this, the pitch was at least an octave higher because there were all these little girls and they were all cheering.”

Before the 1999 final at the Rose Bowl, the consolation game between Brazil and Norway was played on the same field. It started at 10:15 a.m. Pacific time, but was tied 0-0 at the end of regulation. Because of TV scheduling, there wasn’t enough time to play overtime, so the match went to penalty kicks, with Brazil winning 5-4. The tight schedule and penalty kicks prevented the U.S. and China from warming up on the field.

Director of communications Aaron Heifetz (in vest) joins the celebration on the field.getty images

Hacker: “Here we are, the whole world’s watching and we can’t get on the soccer field. This is the resilience of this team. Instead of getting upset, we are doing our warm-up in the bowels of the Rose Bowl. Everything doesn’t have to be perfect for us to play well — there’s a lot of players and teams who think the opposite of that.”

Chastain: “We had to warm up in the tunnel of the Rose Bowl. It’s been cleaned up a lot, but 20 years ago it was the quintessential dark, musty, water-dripping-from-the-pipes [environment]. It was not glamorous, which in a way is even better because it was a reminder that when we started, it wasn’t polished. You had to make do. What are you going to do, say, ‘I can’t do this?’”

On a day when temperatures climbed well above 100 degrees on the Rose Bowl field, the U.S. and China played to a scoreless draw during 90 minutes of regulation and 30 minutes of overtime. Michelle Akers, a veteran midfielder and one of the best American players, missed the overtime and subsequent penalty kicks after being forced from the game because of dehydration and exhaustion. 

China looked like it had the match won when a corner kick header flew past U.S. goalie Briana Scurry and headed for the net in the 100th minute. Midfielder Kristine Lilly headed the shot off and Chastain followed with a clearing kick to extend the match. 

Chastain’s celebration created the most famous sports bra and put an exclamation point on the event.getty images

During penalty kicks, Scurry moved to her left and swatted down Liu Ying’s attempt. Moments later, Chastain hammered the winning goal into the right corner of the net, giving the U.S. a 5-4 win and sending the capacity crowd into a frenzy.

Dellacamera: “Everybody talks about the Chastain goal for good reason. And sometimes the ball that Lilly cleared off the line is not spoken about enough. And what Michelle Akers [who coped with chronic fatigue syndrome] put her body through to get to that final is not spoken of enough. We forget the Brazil game before that where Briana Scurry made so many big saves. Getting to the final was not automatic and they had to face adversity against Germany, they faced adversity against Brazil and they faced a very good China team.”

Scurry’s stop of Ying’s shot meant that, when Chastain set up for the fifth and final shot for the U.S., she had a chance to make a championship-clinching goal that would end the match at 5-4. 

Chastain had a history with the Chinese goalie, Gao Hong, who had prevailed in a penalty kick matchup several months earlier. In that game, prior to the World Cup, Hong stood in front of Chastain and stared her down as Chastain placed the ball on the penalty spot for her kick.

Chastain: “It was a great psychological tactic because it threw me off the normal routine. And I ended up hitting the ball, I hit the crossbar, it went out and we ended up losing that game. So leading up to the kick [in the 1999 final], the only thing going through my head was, ‘Don’t look at the goalkeeper.’ Then once the whistle was blown, you go into muscle memory and you do the thing you’ve done a million times without thought about, ‘Can I make it, what if I do, what if I don’t.’ I can’t quite explain what happens to your mind and your body, the physical response. I guess the best way to describe it is it’s an adrenaline explosion and an emotional eruption of every single feeling you’ve ever had exponentially personified. These were like primeval howls and yelling, it wasn’t words.”

Overbeck: “I don’t love penalty kicks. I had taken the first one. All the kickers were standing in a line at midfield and we all had our arms around each other. … I couldn’t look, I don’t like watching those things. So when I heard the stadium erupt and our team started cheering, I knew she had made it.”

President Bill Clinton, first lady Hillary Clinton and daughter Chelsea Clinton are surrounded by the team after their quarterfinal match at Jack Kent Cooke Stadium.getty images

Heifetz, the media relations director: “When Brandi scored, I was behind everybody. Everybody ran on the field. Everybody mostly ran to Briana Scurry, to jump on Bri. I was younger then, so I had a little bit of speed. I ran to Brandi, which just happened to be the shot that ABC chose. I’m forever in history as the guy in a green vest, jumping on the pile. I had literally worked 9-to-9 seven days a week for two years straight. So, yeah, I was going to run on the field.

After nailing the winning kick, Chastain yanked her shirt off, revealing a black Nike sports bra. Confused Americans, unfamiliar with soccer custom, turned her celebration into a cultural debate while others posited conspiracy theories that Chastain and Nike had premeditated the whole thing to sell sports bras.

Longman, New York Times sportswriter: “The idea that Brandi was trying to get a Nike deal out of this, it’s absurd. For one thing, she changed her bra at halftime because it was such a hot day. The one she had on for the first half had a much bigger Nike swoosh on it than the logo of the sports bra she was wearing at the end. It wouldn’t have been a very clever way to get a sponsorship.”

Overbeck: “We used to train in our sports bras all the time because it was so hot. And that’s what soccer players do when they score — they rip their shirts off. Was it planned? No, it was just spur of the moment.”

After the World Cup, the American team embarked on a whirlwind victory lap that included a parade at Disneyland, celebrations in Manhattan, and a White House visit on the South Lawn. Their post-Pasadena tour included an appearance on David Letterman’s “Late Show,” capping a summer of USWNT appearances and references by the host, who became a prominent fan.

Messing: “We went on this crazy tour. We actually did an event on 57th Street outside the Nike store [since relocated], where Donald Trump unexpectedly showed up and ended up on stage with the team.”

A day after winning, the U.S. team celebrated with a trip to Disneyland.ap images

Total attendance for the 1999 tournament was 1.2 million, an average of more than 37,000 per match. The tournament had 16 teams and 32 matches and that per-match average remains a Women’s World Cup record. Only after growing to 24 teams and 52 matches in 2015 did the Women’s World Cup break the total attendance milestone reached in 1999. In 2015, Canada broke the total attendance record with 1.35 million fans.

Longman, New York Times sportswriter: “It’s the last sporting event we’re ever going to see that built of its own legitimacy. Many people had no idea it was going to take place and, then, three weeks later, [it became a phenomenon]. There were no three-hour pregame shows, no six-hour Super Bowl [analysis]. It built strictly off its own legitimacy. I find that to be fascinating.”

Messing: “As soon as we announced the big city, big stadium plans, we faced serial skepticism. In the beginning, we didn’t address the skepticism. … So, when at the end of the tournament, we had been able to build a great event, provide unexpected bonuses to the women’s national team and pay back the foundation, it was truly a rewarding feeling.”

Roylance: “And we were able to capitalize on the momentum in women’s sports. The hockey team had won the gold medal [at Nagano in 1998], the women’s softball team [won gold at the 1996 Games in Atlanta]. It was a prime opportunity. We couldn’t have scripted it better.”

Erik Spanberg writes for the Charlotte Business Journal.

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