AMHERST — National Soccer Hall of Fame goalkeeper Briana Scurry, a 1993 University of Massachusetts graduate who led UMass to a Final Four that year, will be the keynote speaker at the UMass commencement next month.

Considered a trailblazer for African American women in sports, Scurry will not only speak to the graduates and their families at the May 26 ceremony, which begins at 9 a.m. at McGuirk Alumni Stadium, but will also have her achievements celebrated with a presentation of an honorary degree.

“Briana Scurry has excelled in extraordinary ways throughout her life, and we are so proud to welcome her home to Amherst,” Chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy said in a statement. “Her dedication to teamwork and her advocacy to benefit others makes her a superb choice to provide insight and inspiration to our community.”

The 153rd UMass Amherst commencement will confer degrees to about 7,500 undergraduate and 2,000 master’s and doctoral students. There are expected to be more than 25,000 on hand at the stadium that morning.

In the university’s announcement of its commencement speaker, Scurry is noted as one of the first African American and openly gay professional women’s soccer players, and her 173 international appearances for Team USA championed equality and diversified the sport.

After four years at UMass, she went on to become one of the world’s best professional goalkeepers, winning a gold medal in the first Olympic women’s soccer competition in 1996, and another Olympic gold in 2004.

In the 1999 World Cup championship game, played before more than 90,000 fans at the Rose Bowl and an estimated 40 million viewers watching on American television, Scurry shut out China through 120 minutes and made a lunging penalty kick shoot-out save for the United States. The team’s win is credited as inspiring a women’s soccer boom, and her image was put on a Wheaties box.

Scurry also earned an Olympics silver medal in 2000, and made additional World Cup appearances in 1995 and 2003.

Scurry was inducted into the UMass Athletics Hall of Fame in 2005 and the National Soccer Hall of Fame in 2017. Her story is also permanently featured in the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African American History & Culture’s Title IX exhibit.

While playing professional soccer in 2010, Scurry suffered a career-ending traumatic brain injury. Since her recovery, she has advocated for sports safety and increasing awareness of traumatic brain injuries among female athletes.

Scurry’s 2022 memoir is “My Greatest Save,” chronicling her feats on the field, her post-injury struggles with pain and depression and her passion to break barriers and inspire others.

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