On Friday evening in Frisco, Texas, the National Soccer Hall of Fame will induct its Class of 2026. Here are glimpses into the soccer lives of the five players and the referee who will be celebrated at the ceremony, which will be live-streamed on its website beginning at 7:30 pm ET.
Kevin Crow
1984 & 1988 Olympian; six-time MISL champion
The son of a former NFL player, Kevin Crow preferred soccer. “Everybody gets to be the quarterback,” he said. Crow became an NASL starter for the San Diego Sockers in his rookie season of 1983 and a league All-Star in his second season — before a long indoor career after the NASL folded. Crow also began preparing for a post-playing career while in his prime.
“Sockers owner Ron Fowler owned a Miller Beer distributorship. After training in the morning, after lunch, from one to five or six, I’d go work at his business. My teammates thought I was crazy. I would do it full-time in the offseason. I said, ‘Just put me wherever you want. I want to learn the whole business.’ Accounting, merchandise, warehouse, marketing — and he rotated me around. I wanted to make sure I could transition smoothly out of my playing career.”
Upon retiring from the Sockers, Crow became a business manager outside of soccer. In 2009, he returned to his hometown to lead the youth club that launched his career.
• Crow currently: Technical Director, Ballistic United SC
Tobin Heath
Women’s World Cup winner (2015 & 2019); Olympic gold medalist (2008, 2012)
Tobin Heath (top photo) scored the first goal of the Portland Thorns’ 2-0 win over Western New York Flash in the inaugural 2013 NWSL final. The Thorns were coached by Cindy Parlow Cone, U.S. Soccer’s President since March 2020.
“I knew Cindy from my Tar Heel days [2006–2009],” Heath said. “Cindy was in the Triangle Area, and she would come to practice. Then she led an awesome Portland Thorns team to the first-ever NWSL championship.”
Parlow Cone left pro coaching after that season, and became the director of North Carolina FC Youth.
“I think it’s cool to be good at something and still know that maybe that’s not the path that you want to go on. There are very few people who have that type of understanding and self-awareness. And I always appreciated that she was around the game at various levels. I couldn’t be prouder that a U.S. women’s national team player is our president, and that it’s her.”
• Heath currently: Co-host with Christen Press of The Re-Cap Show.
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