Anson Dorrance was the premier coach of women's soccer in the United States or anywhere during the 1980s and '90s, coaching the University of North Carolina powerhouse and the U.S. national team that won the first Women's World Cup.

Personal Information Class of 2008 Born: April 9, 1951, Bombay, India

Dorrance, who also was the North Carolina men's coach for 12 years in the 1970s and '80s, became coach of the UNC women's team in 1979, two years before the first national championship tournament, held by the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women. North Carolina won that tournament, and kept winning when the NCAA took over the running of the tournament the following year. In the 26 seasons (through 2007) that the NCAA women's tournament has been held, Dorrance's North Carolina teams have won the championship 18 times, including nine in a row from 1986 to 1994. Along the way, the program that Dorrance created has surpassed the UCLA men's basketball team of the 1960s and '70s as statistically the greatest dynasty in American collegiate sports history.

Over his 29 years of coaching them, Dorrance's North Carolina women's teams have a record of 648 victories, 32 defeats and 19 ties. Betweeen 1990 and 1994, they had a streak of 92 consecutive victories. Of the first seven women players elected to the Hall of Fame, four, April Heinrichs, Shannon Higgins, Carla Overbeck and Mia Hamm, played for Dorrance's North Carolina teams. In the 20 seasons that it has been awarded, the Hermann Trophy for the nation's outstanding college women's soccer player has been won by North Carolina players eight times.

Dorrance added the role of national-team coach to his duties in 1986, the second year of the women's national team's existence. He coached the national team until 1994, compiling 65 victories, 22 defeats and five ties. By far the most significant of those victories was the 2-1 triumph over Norway that gave the United States the championship of the first Women's World Cup (which was then called the World Championship for Women’s Football) in Guangzhou, China, in 1991. Of the 11 United States players in that game, six were from Dorrance's North Carolina teams.

During his time as national-team coach, Dorrance continued to coach the North Carolina team as well. When he retired from the national-team position in 1994, he gave as his main reason to be able to devote more time to North Carolina. He had retired from coaching the North Carolina men's team in 1988 after 12 winning seasons, with a total record of 172-65-21. Dorrance's North Carolina men reached the NCAA Final Four in the 1987 season.

Dorrance, who was born in India, also lived in Kenya, Singapore, Belgium and Switzerland as a youth. He was a three-time all-Atlantic Coast Conference soccer player at North Carolina, from which he graduated in 1974.