CLASS OF 2018: Tiffeny Milbrett Elected to National Soccer Hall of Fame

FRISCO - Rounding up and reciting an exhaustive list of Tiffeny Milbrett’s accomplishments on the soccer field is a task for someone with quite a bit of free time. There’s a much quicker way of summing up her Hall of Fame credentials: She is one of this country’s most impressive and accomplished female soccer players. That’s why the 5-foot-2 forward who terrorized opposing defenses for the U.S. Women’s National Team from 1991-2005, is being inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame this October.

Born and raised in Portland, Oregon, Milbrett made a name for herself while attending the University of Portland where the hometown hero scored 103 goals for the Pilots. At that time, thattied the NCAA Division I record held by Mia Hamn.

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Milbrett scored exactly 100 goals in her U.S. WNT career, making her one of two players (with Hamm being the other) to hit the century mark for college and country.  Her 100 goals is tied for fifth all-time in U.S. history and her 64 career assists are fourth on the USA’s all-time list.

Her dominance in Portland extended past college. The U.S. women played six matches in her hometown during her international career and she scored in each of them.

During her career, she was a part of some of the most important teams in U.S. Women’s Soccer history. She not only won a gold medal in 1996 in Atlanta, but also scored the game-winner in the gold medal match to beat China. She also scored in the 2000 Olympic gold medal game and was one of most dangerous scorers for the historic team that won 1999 FIFA Women’s World Cup. Anyone who watched those teams remembers her as a skilled and confident attacker who could overwhelm defenders with terrific dribbling skills, pin-point passes and a highly-creative finishing ability. Milbrett was the U.S. Soccer Female Player of the Year in both 2000 and 2001.

READ: Criteria to be a National Soccer Hall of Fame Nominee 

Balanced with her international career was a successful club career in the USA, Sweden and Japan. Milbrett was the league MVP for the New York Power in the inaugural season of the Women’s United Soccer Association while scoring 16 goals with three assists in 2001. In 2017, the soccer publication FourFourTwo ranked Milbrett’s MVP year to be the most impressive season in women’s professional soccer history.

Known as a ruthless attacker on the field, Milbrett was a free-thinker and a fun-loving teammate off the pitch.  Brandi Chastain, Milbrett’s teammate during the 1996 and 2000 Olympics, as well as the 1999, and 2003 World Cups, had the honor of informing her all these years later that she is being inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame. It is well-deserved.  At a time when women’s soccer was making some of its biggest strides in history, Milbrett’s talent and personality played a major role in that growth.

Hall of Fame Resume

Tiffeny Milbrett, Player

• Forward - U.S. Women’s National Team (1991-2006), University of Portland (1990-94), Shiroki FC Serena (1995-97), New York Power (2001-03), Sunnana SK (2005), Vancouver Whitecaps (2006-08), Linkopings FC (2006-07), FC Gold Pride (2009-10), Bay Area Breeze (2011)
• Currently - Colorado Storm Director Coaching U-16 & U-17 Girls and ECNL

While playing for the U.S. Women’s National Team, Tiffeny Milbrett earned a gold medal at the 1996 Olympic Games, a silver medal in the 2000 Olympic Games and was a member of the squad that won the 1999 Women's World Cup. She earned 206 caps, scored 100 goals and played in three World Cups. When not playing for her country Milbrett played professionally for clubs in Japan, USA, Sweden and Canada from 1995-2010. The Portland, OR native and Denver, CO resident is the University of Portland’s second-leading goal scorer (103) and is fourth all-time in assists (40).