Woman Scores in Power 5 Football Game

Tracy Davenport

Sports

14th December 2020

Sarah Fuller was the first woman to score in a Power 5 conference (Getty Images).

The Claim

The first woman ever scored in a Power 5 football game.

News posted on

Emerging story

Social media posts claim that on December 12, 2020, the first woman scored in a Power 5 football game. In college football, the Power 5 conferences are five athletic conferences which are considered to be the elite in collegiate football in the United States.

Misbar’s Analysis

Last month, Sarah Fuller became the first female to appear on a football field for an SEC school or any Power 5 conference team. Power 5 schools play in the ACC, Big 12, Big Ten, SEC or Pac-12. Fuller kicked off for the Vanderbilt Commodores in the second half against Missouri according to Foxnews.com. On Saturday, December 12, she became the first woman to score in a Power 5 conference football game, cleanly kicking a pair of extra points for Vanderbilt in a 42-17 loss to Tennessee according to ESPN.com.

Fuller, a Vanderbilt senior, was a soccer player who was recruited after members of the football’s special teams contracted Covid-19. When the call came to help the football team, Fuller had just helped lead Vanderbilt University to a Southeastern Conference soccer championship. She was packing up for her holiday break to see her family in Wylie, Texas but decided to stay and give football a try according to NPR.com.

According to the Tennessean, women have made a few appearances in college football games since 1997, when Liz Heaston kicked two extra points for Willamette, then an NAIA program.

Brittany Ryan is the all-time NCAA female scoring leader with 100 points as a kicker at Division III school Lebanon Valley from 2007-10. According to Time.com, Pat Palinkas became the first woman to play in a professional football game, when she held the ball for her husband during his extra point attempt at an exhibition game against the Bridgeport Jets in 1970.