EDWARDS, TERESA

born July 19, 1964, Cairo, Ga., U.S. American basketball player and coach whose Olympic team triumphs led her and others to successfully promote the founding of professional women's basketball leagues in the United States. Edwards claimed that as a girl she was drawn to basketball because it was the one game in which she could trounce the boys. As a student at the University of Georgia (198386), the 5-foot 11-inch Edwards played guard for Georgia's women's basketball team and averaged 15.5 points and 5.1 assists per game. She helped the team win three Southeastern Conference titles and achieve a record of 116 wins to 17 losses. In 1984, while still in college, Edwards played on the U.S. women's Olympic basketball team, winning the first of her Olympic gold medals. After graduating from college, she played professional basketball in Italy, Japan, Spain, and France. In 1988, 1992, and 1996, Edwards was again selected for the U.S. women's Olympic basketball team; the team won gold medals in 1988 and 1996 and a bronze medal in 1992. Such success spurred Edwards and some of her Olympic teammates to actively promote women's basketball in the United States; as a result of their efforts two professional women's basketball leagues were formedthe American Basketball League (ABL; later disbanded) and the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA).