EDWARDS, Teresa

(b. 19 July 1964 in Cairo, Georgia), basketball player whose amateur and professional career covered a nineteen-year period, beginning with her freshman year at the University of Georgia in 1982 and ending with her retirement after the 2000 Olympics. Often called the Michael Jordan of women's basketball, she is a living basketball legend.

Edwards grew up in Cairo, Georgia, a small southern town in which everyone knew everyone else. She was the oldest child of Leroy Copeland and of Mildred Edwards, a single mother of five. To provide for her daughter and four sons, the elder Edwards labored in vegetable fields and worked at a syrup factory. Young Edwards was inspired by her mother's hard work and devotion to God. Motivated by her mother's words, "If you're not going to do it right—and do it hard—don't do it at all," she went on to become one of the greatest women basketball players of all time.

Edwards grew up playing basketball with her four brothers. Her first hoop was a bicycle wheel rim nailed to a tree in the front yard. She learned that she had a real talent for the game when she made the middle school girls basketball team in the seventh grade. Edwards became a star of the Cairo High School team and was an All-American her senior year. Andy Landers, the coach at the University of Georgia, was so impressed with her high school play that he offered her a full scholarship.

At the University of Georgia, five foot, eleven inch Edwards played point guard, and in 1983 she was selected as a freshman All-American. She led the Lady Bulldogs to three Southeastern Conference (SEC) titles (1983, 1984, 1986), participated in four National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) tournaments, and helped her team make it to two Final Four appearances (1983 and 1985). In her sophomore year Edwards was selected for the 1984 U.S. Olympic women's basketball team, which won a gold medal in Los Angeles. Back at school in Georgia, she averaged 15.5 points and 5.1 assists per game. In 2001 she remained the University of Georgia's all-time leader in assists, at 653, and steals, at 342. To honor her accomplishments Georgia retired her number 5 jersey and named her to their All-Time Top Ten Female Athletes list.

As a member (and sometimes co-captain) of twenty-two power-packed American teams and a winner of twelve international medals, nine gold and three bronze, Edwards established herself as an unsurpassed international amateur. Aside from winning four Olympic gold medals in five Olympic Games (1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, and 2000), she was a member of the gold-medal-winning U. S. women's basketball teams that dominated the Goodwill Games, the World Championships, and the Pan-American Games between 1986 and 1990. In addition, Edwards led her teams to a bronze medal finish at the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, the 1991 Pan-American Games, and the 1994 World Championships. Edwards is a three-time winner (1987, 1990, and 1996) of the prestigious USA Basketball's Female Athlete of the Year Award. Her hometown of Cairo honored her in 1988 by naming a street after her. In 1996 the Women's Sports Foundation named her Team Athlete of the Year.

When Edwards's basketball career at the University of Georgia ended in 1986, there were no opportunities for women to pursue a professional basketball career in the United States. So Edwards continued her career overseas. From 1987 through 1988 she played for S. P. Magenta in Vicenza, and Magenta, Italy. Back in the States, Edwards became the first member of her family to graduate from college, completing her degree in leisure studies in 1989 at the University of Georgia. Then, after graduation, she played for the Mitsubishi Electric Corporation in Nagoya, Japan, for four years, leading Mitsubishi to its first playoff games in 1993. While playing in Japan, Edwards averaged 27.7 points and twelve rebounds per game. Returning to Europe in 1994, she played for C. B. Dorna Basketball Club in Valencia, Spain, and for Tarbes Gespe Bigorre in Tarbes, France.

In 1996 Edwards was a founding member, marquee player, and coach for the American Basketball League (ABL), which remained in operation until December of 1998. She is credited with coining the league's slogan, "Little girls need big girls to look up to." Prior to the ABL's bankruptcy, Edwards was elected to the ABL board of directors, and Gary Cavalli, ABL chief executive officer, announced that she was his choice to eventually succeed him as CEO. Edwards played two years for the Atlanta Glory; in her second year she was the first player-coach in the ABL. At the end of the 1998 season she stepped down as coach and was traded to the Philadelphia Rage (for the 1998–1999 season, which ended prematurely when the league folded). During her three seasons Edwards was first in ABL scoring with an average of twenty-one points per game and fourth in assists with an average of 5.6 per game. She set a record as the only player to score forty or more points in a game and accomplished this four times.

After the demise of the ABL, the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) offered Edwards a player position. She turned down the offer when they refused to pay her more than $65,000—considerably less than the $125,000 she had made as an ABL player.

Edwards retired from basketball after the 2000 Olympics. When Nell Fortner, the coach of the 2000 U.S. Olympic women's basketball team, was asked about Edwards, she said, "I have to put her in the category of one of the best, if not the best, players in the world." Edwards resides in Atlanta and works as a motivational speaker.

Edwards is the only American basketball player to have played in five Olympic Games. She co-captained the 1988, 1996 and 2000 U.S. Olympic women's basketball teams. In Olympic competition she earned four gold medals and one bronze. She was honored at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta by being selected to recite the Olympic Oath at the Opening Ceremonies on behalf of all the Olympic athletes. At age twenty, she was the youngest member of the 1984 Olympic team and at age thirty-six, the oldest member of the 2000 Olympic team. An important part of women's basketball history, Edwards was truly instrumental in the rise of women's college and professional basketball.

There is no adult biography of Teresa Edwards. A number of children's books give a brief biography. Related books include Sara Corbet, Venus to the Hoop (1997); Christina Lessa, Women Who Win (1998); James Ponti, WNBA Stars of Women ' s Basketball (1999); and Tara VanDerveer, with Joan Ryan, Shooting from the Outside: How a Coach and Her Olympic Team Transformed Women's Basketball (1997). See also "100 Greatest Female Athletes: 22. Teresa Edwards, Basketball," Sports Illustrated for Women (winter 1999–2000, pullout section), and Robin Norwood, "Seven Days to the Sydney Olympics: Recognition Is at End of Road," Los Angeles Times (8 Sept. 2000). Good sources on the Internet are "Teresa's Bio," Teresa Edwards,http://www.teresaedwards.com and "Teresa Edwards," Official Site of USA Basketball,http://usabasketball.com/usab/Women/edwards_bio.html.

Gai Ingham Berlage