The first U.S. women’s national soccer team gathered to celebrate its 40th anniversary this past August at a Seattle’s women’s sports bar, Rough & Tumble. Of the 17-person roster, eight players to be honored at the Seattle Reign’s home game that weekend were from the area.
But one woman who was not on the national team was also essential to the development of U.S. women’s soccer. Bernadette Noonan was their unsung hero.
“They gave me such praise. Those ‘85ers think I was responsible for them playing, because it needed encouragement,” Noonan said.
Despite her modesty, the Irish-born 95-year-old was fundamental to the growth of soccer in Washington state. Seattle got its first professional soccer team in 1974, sparking wider interest in the sport and also leading to the formation of the now-defunct Washington State Women’s Soccer Association.
“A gal who lived on the Hill put an ad in a paper that came out with ads for groceries asking for anybody who’d like to play soccer to call her, and she got 100 calls,” Noonan said.
Title IX, which prohibited sex-based discrimination in federally funded education programs, was just two years old. The legislation was pivotal in getting women’s sports the attention and support they have today.
“When I was a kid, they played Gaelic football in Ireland, and so I would always go to those games, because my brothers played in them,” Noonan said. “Any chance I got, I would kick a ball, but never thought about women’s soccer.”
At the age of 44, as a mother of four, Noonan jumped at the chance to play a sport she had never had the opportunity to play in Ireland. She became a founding member of the Washington State Women’s Soccer Association and played in its first season.
“I think we had nine teams that year, and we went up to 140 teams at one point,” Noonan said.
In those early years, Noonan says, mostly husbands coached the teams. They played with a smaller ball, had to fight for field space and to be taken seriously by the refs. But for Noonan and the other women, it was all worth it.
“Oh, my God, we changed women’s lives, you have no idea,” Noonan said. “It changed lives because they were at home washing dishes. Now they’re out on a big field, kicking, and they loved it.”
Teams were based on neighborhoods. Noonan played on the Capitol Hill Streakers, there were also the University District Geoducks, and the West Seattle Ladybugs. The Streakers played seven games that first season and lost them all. But they did win a memorable scrimmage against the newly formed women’s club team at the University of Washington, which was led by Mike Ryan.
“Mike Ryan never lost a game. Well, he lost that one. He couldn’t even talk to me, and we were friends,” Noonan laughed. “He was so upset that this group of women — we were all in at least our 40s — beat his team.”
Ryan was a fellow Irishman and was coaching the university’s men’s team at the time. He was also the inaugural president of the Washington State Women’s Soccer Association, a role Noonan took over in 1985.
On top of playing and her eventual presidential duties, Noonan was the Team Player Coordinator, in charge of assigning new players to rosters.
“If I met a woman, I’d say, are you playing soccer? And she’d say, No, and I said, well you have to and I’d try and find her a team,” Noonan said.
The Noonan family had to get a second landline because of the number of calls they received from women looking for a team. Her husband was a funeral director, so it became an awkward interaction when people were calling for the other Noonan.
“I placed thousands because my number was given out, everybody had it, and I loved it,” Noonan said.
Noonan also worked behind the scenes in less direct ways. From advocating for the University of Washington to turn women’s soccer into a varsity sport to fundraising for local travel teams to compete, Noonan fought tirelessly to grow the women’s game.
When Denise Boyer, a member of the 1985 national team and a Seattle local, was invited to participate in the 40th anniversary festivities, she brought Noonan as her guest of honor.
Janet Slauson, who passed away in 2024, was Noonan’s friend and partner in advocating for women’s soccer. Together they fundraised to help send teams out of state and out of the country to compete.
In a video from the celebration at Rough and Tumble, Noonan put it simply: “We felt they should have the same chance as men.”
“Oh, they’re my, they’re my girls,” Noonan said. “We felt we were responsible for having them out there.”
Noonan remembers traveling with Slauson to as many games as they could. The pair were at the historic 1999 Women’s World Cup final, which many call a pivotal moment for women’s soccer in the U.S.
“There weren’t that many women that were interested and spent money to go to games they weren’t playing, whereas Janet and I were there roaring for them,” Noonan said.
When asked why she dedicated so much time and energy on these women and this sport for little recognition and no compensation, Noonan put it bluntly: “I’m an idiot.” Noonan laughed. “Simple answer, I loved it, and I saw the change it made in women’s lives.”
