Tonya Butler

Butler was raised in Fayetteville, Georgia, where she played the placekicker position for Riverdale High School.^[2] She won the starting kicking job when she was in tenth grade after serving as the junior varsity kicker for her freshman year.^[3] As a sophomore, Butler converted seven of eight field goal attempts and 28 of 31 extra points and became the first female to both make the all-area team for Clayton and Henry Counties and honorable mention for Class AAA all-state team as picked by the Georgia Sportswriters Association.^[2][4]

Butler converted five of ten field goal attempts and 20 of 23 extra points as a junior; and seven of thirteen field goals and 64-of-65 extra points as a senior.^[2][5] She completed her Riverdale career with 165 total points, for second place all-time in points scored at Riverdale.^[5] For her performance on the field, Butler was also named to the 1998 Class AAA all-state football team as picked by the Georgia Sportswriters Association as the first female ever selected.^[5] She also lettered in soccer in high school.^[1]

During her senior year of high school, Butler received interest from Central Michigan in Division I-A and over two dozen schools in Division I-AA for her services as placekicker.^[2] In January 1999 Butler announced she would play college football at Middle Georgia College for head coach Randy Pippin and signed a national letter of intent for a football scholarship to compete as placekicker on February 3, 1999.^[6][7] The signing made Butler the first female to earn a football scholarship at a state school.^[7] During her two years at Middle Georgia, Butler made 36 of 42 extra points and one field goal for the Warriors.^[8] After earning her associates degree at Middle Georgia, she did not receive any scholarship offers to compete as a placekicker elsewhere.^[8] Butler ended up going to Georgia Southern where she graduated in 2003.^[9]

After graduating from Georgia Southern, former Georgia College head coach Randy Pippin, who was now the head coach at West Alabama, offered Butler a scholarship to serve as placekicker for the Tigers.^[10] With two years of eligibility remaining, she enrolled as a graduate student and won the starting placekicker position for the Tigers 2003 season.^[10] In the first game of the season, Butler scored on a 27-yard field goal attempt against Stillman with 9:41 remaining in the first quarter.^[10] Although initially unconfirmed by the NCAA as gender was not differentiated in their all-time records, it was later confirmed that Butler was the first female player to score a field goal in an NCAA college football game.^[11][12][13]

Butler served as placekicker for both the 2003 and 2004 seasons playing for West Alabama. For her career she made 13 of 19 field goal attempts with a long kick of 39 yards, and 48 of 53 in extra point attempts.^[13] Her 50 total points made during the 2003 season led the squad, and she was named special teams captain in both her years at West Alabama.^[13] Butler also was named Academic All-Gulf South Conference in 2004 and graduated in 2005 with a master's degree in psychology and counseling.^[13] In January 2006, her West Alabama helmet, jersey and cleats were displayed at the NCAA Hall of Champions in Indianapolis in recognition of her accomplishments as a student-athlete.^[13]

Butler held the record for the most points scored by a female college football player with 87 through the 2010 season when Brittany Ryan from Lebanon Valley College established the new mark.^[14]

• List of female American football players
• Sarah Fuller, the first woman to score in a Power Five conferences football game
• Liz Heaston, first female to play and score in a college football game
• Katie Hnida, the first woman to score in a FBS game
• Becca Longo, first woman to receive an NCAA football scholarship to a Division II or better school
• Haley Van Voorhis, the first female to play a non-kicking position in an NCAA game at any level