Millions of Americans have their own stories from the '99

Women's World Cup. People like David Knies of Scituate, Mass.,

who was on a plane from San Francisco to Taipei during the

U.S.-China final, roaring with his countrymen, amid the Chinese

passengers' stunned silence, when the pilot announced the

Americans' victory; Jerry Acciaioli of Rochester Hills, Mich.,

who huddled around a transistor radio with two dozen strangers

on California's Venice Beach, cheering the winning penalty kick;

and the Reverend Bob Disher of Burlington, N.C., who instructed

his parishioners at a Saturday service to please, please not

tell him the score of the final, because he was taping the game

at home.

The four vignettes that follow give us a glimpse into the

emotions stirred by the U.S. team. They offer one more

unshakable argument for naming the players SI's Sportswomen of

the Year.

It was a simple gesture, really, nothing more than the choice of

white nylon instead of flannel or a tie-dyed T-shirt. But when

Trey Anastasio, the lead singer of Phish--a latter-day version

of the Grateful Dead--wore a Mia Hamm number 9 jersey onstage at

a concert in Atlanta on July 3, the implication was clear: The

U.S. women hadn't just won over mainstream American culture;

they had won over the counterculture, too.

"We did a three-night stand in Barcelona during the men's World

Cup [in '98], and we got pretty caught up in that, so we started

watching the women's games backstage," Anastasio explains. "For

the final we made sure there was a big-screen TV in the crew

lounge. The room [in Camden, N.J.] kept filling up as the game

went on. Let me tell you, there was a pretty big whoop when

[Briana] Scurry made the save."

Understand, this wasn't Hootie & the Blowfish cozying up to Dan

Marino just to land him as a guest in their next video. No, this

was the male leader of a posthippie, anticommercial band donning

a women's soccer jersey. "There was a lot of pride in seeing the

American women compete like that," Anastasio says. "I have two

daughters [Eliza, left, and Isabella], and it makes me happy

that this is the world they're growing up in, you know?"

--Grant Wahl

COLOR PHOTO: DAMIAN STROHMEYER