RELATED COVERAGE More on Deflinger Hall of Fame induction CONCACAF Hall of Fame

NEW YORK -- Mavis Derflinger, a member of the CONCACAF Hall of Fame, passed away early Thursday morning in Alexandria, Virginia. She was 75.

Since her involvement as a coach in the late 1960s, Deflinger was a key figure in the development of women's football at the domestic and international levels.

She became the first female board member of the United States Soccer Federation in the 1980s and was a former chair of the US Youth Soccer Association.

The English-born Derflinger fought tirelessly for funding of the U.S. Women's program. Significantly, her efforts were pivotal in securing initial funding for the creation of the U.S. Under-19 Women's National Team in the early 1990s. Many of those would go on to win the 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup.

In addition to the many football-related honors that she received over the course of her life, in 2004, Derflinger became the first woman to be inducted into the CONCACAF Hall of Fame.