Katie Hnida facts for kids
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| Position | Placekicker |
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| Major | Psychology |
| Personal information | |
| Born: | May 17, 1981 |
| Height | 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m) |
| Weight | 138 lb (63 kg) |
| Career history | |
| College |
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| Bowl games |
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| High school | Chatfield (Littleton, Colorado) |
| Career highlights and awards | |
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Katharine Anne Hnida (born May 17, 1981) is a former American football player. She made history as the first woman to score points in a NCAA Division I-A game. This is the highest level of college football. She achieved this as a placekicker for the University of New Mexico Lobos on August 30, 2003.
Katharine Hnida was the third woman to score in a college football game. Before her, Liz Heaston scored for NAIA Willamette University in 1997. Then, Ashley Martin scored for NCAA Division I-AA Jacksonville State University in 2001. In 1999, while at the University of Colorado Boulder, Katharine became the second woman to dress for a Division I-A game. She was also the first to do so for a bowl game.
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Early Life and High School Football
Katharine Hnida grew up in Littleton, Colorado. She went to Chatfield Senior High School nearby. There, she was a member of the school's football team. In her senior year, she was very successful. She made 3 out of 3 field goal attempts. She also made 27 out of 28 extra point attempts. She was part of the varsity team. Teen People magazine even named her one of America's "20 most influential teens."
College Football Journey
After high school, Katharine Hnida went to the University of Colorado Boulder. Because she was so good at football in high school, she was invited to join the Colorado Buffaloes team. She joined as a walk-on freshman placekicker. She never played in a game for Colorado. However, she did get to suit up for games. This made her the second woman to do so in Division I football. She was also the first to suit up for a bowl game, the 1999 Insight.com Bowl.
In 2001, Katharine left Colorado. She later transferred to the University of New Mexico in 2002. There, she joined the New Mexico Lobos football team as a walk-on placekicker. At New Mexico, she became the first woman to play in a Division I-A bowl game. This happened in the 2002 Las Vegas Bowl against UCLA. On August 30, 2003, she made history. She became the first woman to score in a Division I-A game. She kicked two extra points in a game where New Mexico won 72–8. She finished college and graduated in December 2004.
Life After Playing Football
After her college football career, Katharine Hnida began traveling. She shares her story as an athlete. She often speaks at colleges and universities. Her goal is to educate and raise awareness about important topics. She has worked with groups that help people who have faced challenges. Today, she lives in Los Angeles.
Katharine's father, Dave Hnida, is a doctor. He is also a medical reporter for a TV station in Denver. He wrote a book called "Paradise General: Riding the Surge at a Combat Hospital in Iraq."
In 2010, Katharine Hnida played professional football. She became the kicker for the Fort Wayne FireHawks. This team was in the Continental Indoor Football League. She was the first female player in that league. She was also only the second female professional football player ever. She played in the team's first three games that season. Later that year, she had to stop playing due to a medical issue in her leg.
In 2018, Katharine became very ill. She had a bad reaction to medicine. This caused her kidneys and liver to stop working well. Her bone marrow also stopped working correctly. She needed special medical care and dialysis to help her recover.
See also
- Tonya Butler, the first female to score a field goal in an NCAA game
- Sarah Fuller, the first woman to score in a Power Five conferences football game
- Liz Heaston, the first woman to score in a college football game, done in the NAIA
- Ashley Martin, the first female to score in an NCAA game, and the first to score in a Division I game
- Haley Van Voorhis, the first female to play a non-kicking position in an NCAA game at any level
- List of female American football players
