Heather O'Reilly Elected to National Soccer Hall of Fame in First Year of Eligibility
As a soccer-loving young player in New Jersey, Heather O’Reilly grew up rooting for the U.S. Women’s National Team.
She attended the opening match of the 1999 FIFA Women’s World Cup at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., “screaming my head off for Mia Hamm as a 14-year-old. That’s why it was so amazing to play with the team and be a part of this significant event.”
As a 19-year-old at another significant event, the 2004 Summer Olympics, O’Reilly was rooting for Hamm for another reason: They were teammates.
Just minutes after missing a golden chance to score against 2003 FIFA Women’s World Cup champion Germany in the semifinals of that Olympic Games, O’Reilly showed the mental toughness that would come to define her career. She immediately put that miscue behind her to finish Hamm’s cross for a 99th-minute goal that lifted the Americans to a 2-1 victory.
The U.S. went on to capture the gold medal, giving the Fab Five — Hamm, Joy Fawcett, Julie Foudy, Kristine Lilly and Brandi Chastain — a memorable send-off to their competitive careers after winning the Women’s World Cup in 1991 and 1999, and the Olympics in 1996 as well.
“As young players, we wouldn’t have been happy sending them out with anything but a gold medal,” O’Reilly said.
O’Reilly, who debuted at age 17 in 2002, might have made the 2003 FIFA Women’s World Cup Team if not for a broken leg suffered in a friendly against Ireland in June of that year.
Once she recovered, however, she became a vital member of the USWNT and one of the winningest players in women’s soccer history. O’Reilly will be honored for her achievements on May 1, 2026, when she is inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame in Frisco, Texas.
She was voted in from the Player Ballot in her first year of eligibility.
O’Reilly made 231 international appearances, including 71 consecutive matches from 2007 to 2011. During an international career that spanned from 2002 to 2016, O’Reilly scored 47 goals and had 54 assists. She was a three-time Olympic gold medal winner (2004, 2008, 2012) and a member of the 2015 Women’s World Cup championship side.
She is one of four players to win three Olympic soccer golds, along with Christie Rampone, Heather Mitts and Shannon Boxx.
O’Reilly also was a major part of the U.S. team that won the 2002 FIFA U-19 Women’s World Cup in Canada, the first-ever FIFA world championship for youth women. She won two NCAA championships with the University of North Carolina (2003, 2006) and three titles at the professional club level, with Sky Blue FC (2009), FC Kansas City (2015) and the North Carolina Courage (2018). She also competed briefly overseas with Arsenal in England (2017-18) and won an FA WSL Cup medal.
“Heather has been a vitally important part of our program for many years and has continued to set a standard for professionalism and work ethic,” former U.S. coach Jill Ellis told ussoccer.com in 2016. “She’s been right in the thick of things for most of our big moments over the past 15 years and has always been the ultimate team player and a world-class person.
“She should be incredibly proud of the indelible impact she’s made on this team and on women’s soccer.”
Those sentiments are common from coaches and teammates alike, many describing O’Reilly as the ultimate competitor on the field — always crouched just a bit, eyes focused, heart beating, ready to pounce and create some chaos or damage to the opposition.
“The game face is hard to put into words, because I don’t know I’m doing it,” O’Reilly told FIFA.com in 2019. “Basically, whenever I compete in sports, for some reason I get this very intense look on my face.
“It’s funny because off the field, I’m pretty upbeat, positive, joking around, but once the whistle blows it gets very intense and I put on the game face.”
Hamm saw O’Reilly’s potential early on.
“She has the skill that is absolutely frightening to any defender and she’s the fastest person on our team,” she told this writer in 2004. “She’s one of the fastest players I’ve ever seen on a soccer field, and whether she starts or comes in off the bench, that’s a weapon that’s kind of hard to contain.”
As it turned out, the midfielder-winger would forge a reputation of creating or scoring goals at the Summer Games.
At the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, O’Reilly set a record for the quickest goal in Olympic women’s soccer history, connecting 40 seconds into a 4-0 win over New Zealand.
Against Canada in the semifinals the 2012 London Olympics, she sent a cross from the right to Alex Morgan, who famously headed the ball home in the 123rd minute, boosting the USWNT to a 4-3 triumph in what many considered to be the greatest women’s game ever played.
O’Reilly also produced at the World Cup. At the 2007 competition in China, she struck for the equalizer in the 69th minute as the Americans drew with North Korea, 2-2, in their group match. O’Reilly added a goal in a 4-1 win over Norway in the third-place match.
And at the 2011 tournament in Germany, she scored a spectacular 25-yard goal in the 12th minute of a 3-0 victory over Colombia.
“Of course, I wanted to make my impact on the game,” O’Reilly told FIFA.com after that Colombia match in 2011. “The passion of the World Cup is incredible. It’s the pinnacle of the sport. They only come around every four years, so you want to make sure that you’re in top form. Very early in the match, a defender took a poor touch, and I was able to pounce on it, saw the goalkeeper off her line. I just hit it right. I don’t score too many from long range.
“It was the best feeling. It was probably one of the best goals I’ve ever scored.”
The goal was so impressive it was nominated for the FIFA Puskas Award, given to the world’s goal of the year. O’Reilly was the lone woman among the nine finalists, which included Lionel Messi, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Wayne Rooney and Neymar, the winner. (An award for FIFA women’s goal of the year has since been established, named for Brazilian legend, Marta.)
The youngest of four children, O’Reilly was born in East Brunswick, N.J., on Jan. 2, 1985. Her family had a strong athletic background. Her father, Andrew, was a three-time All-American selection in track at Villanova. Her brother Kevin ran cross-country at the Air Force Academy, and all three brothers played soccer.
When she wasn’t playing soccer, O’Reilly was the point guard for the East Brunswick High School girls’ basketball team. But out on the pitch, she was virtually unstoppable during her four-year career, ripping the nets for 143 goals and leading the side to the state title in her junior season in 2001. In 2002, O’Reilly was named Gatorade National High School Girls’ Soccer Player of the Year.
During the march to the 2001 high school state championship, O’Reilly decided to change her style of play in the semifinals against Brick Memorial. Instead of trying to score, she demonstrated her unselfish side by becoming a playmaker. Only 81 seconds into the game, she set up Elana Lidor for the first goal in a 3-0 victory.
“I kind of laugh when I see extra defenders flying my way,” O’Reilly told the Newark Star-Ledger at the time. “I know everyone else on this team is capable of scoring and I’m happy to set them up.”
To no one’s surprise, she also scored in that match.
“Heather O’Reilly may be the best player I’ve ever coached against,” Brick Memorial coach Billy Caruso told the Star-Ledger. “We spent three days going over how to mark her, and she went out and picked up two assists. She is a stud.”
Actually, O’Reilly was a renaissance woman. A fine student, she was a member of the National Honor Society and her junior class homecoming queen.
She skipped the high school playoffs her senior year to concentrate on performing with the U.S. Under-19 National Team in the 2002 FIFA U-19 Women’s World Cup. In that tourney, O’Reilly recorded four goals and dished out five assists — and the Americans captured the world championship on a “golden goal” from her good friend Lindsay Tarpley to beat host Canada 1-0 in Edmonton.
Nicknamed “HAO” for her initials (Heather Ann O’Reilly), she made her full international debut in a 1-1 draw against Sweden on March 1, 2002, at the Algarve Cup.
“I think coming onto the U.S. team as a 17-year-old was at first a little bizarre, for me to be playing up top with Mia,” she said in 2004. “They were idols to me. They still are, but I can’t be star-struck anymore.”
O’Reilly was expected to play a valuable role as a reserve at the 2003 FIFA Women’s World Cup, but the injury derailed those dreams.
“It was pretty devastating,” she said. “I did everything I could to try to rehab it. There was a point where I could not fight human nature, could not make the recovery process go any faster.”
She returned to health and scored 15 goals as a freshman at the University of North Carolina. The 5-foot-5 midfielder connected for a school-record eight goals in the NCAA Tournament — breaking Hamm’s record — as the Heels won the title.
O’Reilly was 17 when she scored her first international goal for the USWNT as a second-half substitute in a 2-0 win over Italy in the U.S. Cup on Oct. 10, 2002.
“That kid is lightning,” longtime captain Julie Foudy told USA Today. “She can run by defenses like no one I’ve ever seen.”
O’Reilly continued her stellar play at UNC, eventually scoring 59 goals with 49 assists in four years as the Tar Heels won NCAA titles in 2003 and 2006. She earned College Cup Offensive MVP twice and helped UNC to three Atlantic Coast Conference crowns. She was so influential that the program retired her No. 20 jersey in 2008, joining future NSHOF inductees April Heinrichs, Tisha Venturini, Lilly and Hamm.
Her college honors included being named Soccer America’s 2006 College Player of the Year and 2005 ACC Offensive Player of the Year, and winning the 2006-07 Honda Sports Award. In 2017, O’Reilly became the second UNC student-athlete inducted into the CoSIDA Academic All-America Hall of Fame.
O’Reilly announced her retirement on Sept. 1, 2016. Captaining the U.S. in her final match, O’Reilly scored her final goal in a 9-0 victory over Thailand on Sept. 15, 2016.
“I have spent nearly half my life in a U.S. Soccer uniform, so making the decision to retire from international play was incredibly hard and emotional,” O’Reilly told ussoccer.com. “But quite simply, after 230 caps, thousands of practices, many trips around the world, and having played in three World Cups and three Olympics, it just feels like the right time. I’ve had an incredibly complete career playing for my country and it has been an absolute honor to represent the USWNT for the last 15 years. I’m leaving this team with a lot of happiness in my heart and pride for what we’ve accomplished.
“I truly love this game, and it will be in my life forever. Now, I’m looking forward to being a USWNT fan. American Outlaws, where do I sign up?”
Since calling it a career, O’Reilly hasn’t ventured too far from the game. She served for a time as assistant coach at UNC, has done a bit of TV work to excellent reviews, and is a co-host of a radio show on women’s soccer on Sirius XM.
“Heather O’Reilly checks every box for us in an extraordinary way,” former UNC coach Anson Dorrance told GoHeels.com. “First of all, she is a Tar Heel legend. Secondly, she is U.S. full National and Olympic Team royalty. And then her professional team résumé is also lights-out. Even her academic resume is in the top 1 percent.”
In 2022, O’Reilly returned to the pitch to play for Shelbourne FC and scored the winning goal against ZNK Pomurje in the UEFA Women’s Champions League. That stint delayed her eligibility for the National Soccer Hall of Fame, but when her time came, she of course was voted into the Hall.
And she still has that competitive spirit, captaining the “U.S. Women” team to back-to-back championships at The Soccer Tournament, a $1 million, winner-take-all 7v7 competition.
Moral of the story? Even in retirement, she keeps on winning.