Mia Hamm made Carolina home before her game reached the world
Addressing the Class of 2025 is an “incredible honor” for the soccer superstar and Spring Commencement speaker.
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When Mia Hamm scored the United States’ opening goal at the 1999 World Cup, a 14-year-old girl named Heather O’Reilly watched in amazement from the stands of Giants Stadium in New Jersey.
Like Hamm, O’Reilly went on to become a Tar Heel, Olympic Gold Medalist and World Cup winner. “She completely inspired me,” O’Reilly told the BBC.
O’Reilly ’07 is far from the only one Hamm ’94 unknowingly shaped. Another Tar Heel and future pro, Paige Nielsen ’15, drew a picture of Hamm as a child and said of Carolina: “This is the school that I want to go to.”
When Aziz Sancar, Carolina professor and avid Tar Heel soccer fan, won a Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2015, he called receiving a signed national team jersey from Hamm “one of the happiest times in my life.”
Junior Mia Laws, an aspiring doctor, received her name from the “one thing” her “Tar Heel dad and Blue Devil mom could agree on”: Hamm being an inspiration.
Hamm — a four-time NCAA champion, two-time World Cup winner, two-time Olympic Gold Medalist and twice the FIFA World Player of the Year — will return to Chapel Hill this weekend to serve as keynote speaker at Spring Commencement.
Before achieving those feats, she moved into Avery Residence Hall on campus, drank from the Old Well, hung out with friends outside the Undergraduate Library and rushed Franklin Street after big basketball wins.
When taking the stage Saturday evening at Kenan Stadium, Hamm will address graduates who have done much of the same. Like all Commencement speakers, she’ll have the opportunity to share words of wisdom, encouragement and inspiration.
But inspiring Tar Heels isn’t new for Hamm.
Now pursuing a sports medicine career, Mia Laws ’26 used to make Mia Hamm the “subject of every school project I could,” including her sixth-grade wax museum project. (Submitted photos)
Answering the call
When Hamm retired from soccer in 2004, long-time Tar Heel coach Anson Dorrance called his former player “our most important female athlete ever.”
The “our” wasn’t just referring to UNC-Chapel Hill, the nation or sport of soccer — but the world.
Hamm doesn’t think of soccer when considering her greatest accomplishment, though.
“Being a mom has been amazing,” she said in an interview in the Los Angeles area, where she now lives. “It has made me grow as a person like no other.”
With her twin daughters now high school seniors, Hamm has been a parent for longer than she was a professional soccer player. She often talks to them about facing fear and overcoming discomfort to embrace exciting opportunities.
When she received a phone call from Chancellor Lee H. Roberts asking her to speak to the Class of 2025, she was nervous but said yes to the “incredible honor.”
Why the nerves? “I want to honor all these people who supported me to get here,” she said.
Yes, even Hamm — who began playing for the national team against adults at 15, was forced to push through a badly injured ankle in the 1996 Olympics and converted a penalty kick in the 1999 World Cup final — still gets nervous.
Fear and anxiety, she’ll advise the 6,829 graduates, are just a part of life — not roadblocks to their goals.
“Life is about moments and the people,” Hamm said.
A young fan waves goodbye to Mia Hamm after meeting her at a book signing on the UNC-Chapel Hill campus in 1999. (Dan Sears/UNC-Chapel Hill)
Coming home
Playing for Dorrance and being a part of a program built on accountability and pride drew her to Carolina. Beyond that, Carolina felt like home the second Hamm stepped foot on campus. She saw UNC-Chapel Hill as a place she could go and excel, whether soccer was in her life or not.
Like many of the students who will listen to her speech, Hamm developed some of her best friendships on campus. At Carolina, she learned what’s required to be successful in the career path she pursued. She loved cheering on all Tar Heel sports teams and relished wins over Duke, both as a spectator and a participant — especially the Tar Heels’ 9-1 victory in the 1992 national title.
Hamm graduated holding the Carolina and NCAA career scoring records for goals (103), assists (72) and total points (278). (Carolina Athletics)
Hamm wants the graduates to know they’ll remain part of the Carolina community long after tossing their caps in the air.
“We share a common love and bond through Carolina,” Hamm said.
She keeps in touch with teammates and coaches and remains connected with the soccer program. With the Mia Hamm Foundation — founded after the death of her brother Garrett and dedicated to raising funds and awareness for families in need of a marrow or cord blood transplant — Hamm also collaborates with Carolina athletics, UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center and UNC Hospitals’ SECU Family House.
Lessons learned as a Tar Heel have molded her, something the soon-to-be alums will also experience.
“When you’re at Carolina, it’s not just about your education,” Hamm said. “It’s about, ‘Do you make the University and the community better?’ I really felt that at Carolina. The people there were about lifting you up and challenging you.”
