2026 Hall of Fame Inductee: Katie Bam

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Over the next few weeks, USA Field Hockey will be celebrating and honoring the 2026 Hall of Fame inductees prior to the Gala, hosted by the USA Field Hockey Foundation.

Two-time Olympian Katie (née O’Donnell) Bam was a lethal striker for the U.S. Women’s National Team who competed in 222 international matches. She joined the USWNT in 2005, when she was just 16 years old, and stepped away following the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

Bam grew up in Blue Bell, Pa. and picked up the sport because of her two older sisters. She was a four-year letter winner at Wissahickon High School, where she led the team in scoring and assists every season and was the first player to be named The Times Herald Player of the Year four times. During high school she participated in Futures (now Nexus) and went on to compete in Futures Elite and be selected for A-Camp and B-Camp. She was eventually named to the U-16 USWNT in 2003 and the U-19 USWNT in 2004. A year later she advanced to the U-21 squad where she was named to the 2005 BDO Junior World Cup roster in Santiago, Chile, and helped USA to a seventh place finish. That same year, Bam joined the senior USWNT full-time and competed in Auckland, New Zealand where she recorded her first international cap.

Bam went on to play collegiately at the University of Maryland (2007-2010) and to this day is considered the most decorated player in school history. She helped the Terrapins to two NCAA National Championships (2008, 2010), an NCAA Runner-Up appearance (2009), and three Atlantica Coast Conference (ACC) titles (2008, 2009, 2010). Her impressive personal accolades include being the 2009 and 2010 Honda Award Winner and 2010 Women's Sports Foundation's Sportswoman of the Year, four-time NFHCA Division I First Team All-American, 2009 NFHCA Mid-Atlantic All-Region Player of the Year, 2009 and 2010 womensfieldhockey.com National Player of the Year and Offensive MVP, four-time ACC Offensive Player of the Year, and the ACC’s career points and assist record holder in 2010.

While playing for Maryland, Bam wore the red, white and blue any chance she got. In 2008 she helped the team win gold at the Junior Pan American Championship in Mexico City, Mexico, where she was named Top Goalscorer. At the 2009 Junior World Cup held in Boston, Mass., she assisted USA to an eighth-place finish.

In October 2011, Bam helped USA to a gold medal and Olympic berth at the Pan American Games in Guadalajara, Mexico. She tallied three goals during pool play and another in the final for USA to win 4-2 over perennial power Argentina, their first win against them since 1987. That victory secured the squad direct Olympic Games qualification.

After college, Bam moved to the West Coast to train with the USWNT full-time in preparation for the London 2012 Olympic Games. She was selected to represent USA and following a twelfth-place finish at the Olympic Games, helped USA bounce back a few months later at the Champions Challenge I in Dublin, Ireland with a silver medal.

In 2013, she was on the squad that helped USA place at the Pan American Cup, which earned them a 2014 Rabobank Hockey World Cup berth. Bam was integral in the squad’s inspirational performance in the Netherlands during the World Cup, defeating higher ranked teams and battling Australia to a semifinal shootout to narrowly miss out on a medal against their Pan American rivals to claim fourth.

Bam was part of the USA team that mimicked their 2011 performance to go undefeated at the 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto, Canada, securing the squad’s qualification for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. This was followed by a fifth-place finish at the 2015 FIH Hockey World League Semifinals.

As the lowest world ranked team in attendance, USA shocked at the 2016 Hockey Champions Trophy in London, England. In the bronze match against Australia, Bam tallied both goals in regulation to force the shootout, where USA prevailed to earn a medal. Continuing with that momentum, USA impressed the world that August at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games by earning a historic fifth-place finish, where Bam earned Leading Goal Scorer with five goals.

Following her playing days, Bam was an assistant coach at Harvard University in 2016 before returning to her alma mater from 2017 to 2021 as an associate head coach. She also started Katie Bam Camps and Clinics alongside her husband.

A two-time Olympian who competed at the London 2012 and Rio 2016 Olympic Games, Bam is truly worthy of induction into the USA Field Hockey Hall of Fame.

Join us as we celebrate and honor the 2026 Hall of Fame inductees on Saturday, May 16, 2026 at the 2026 Hall of Fame Gala. Tickets can be purchased by clicking here.