Beverly ("Bev") Oden (born March 19, 1971 in

Millington, Tennessee Millington is a city in Shelby County, Tennessee, United States, and is a part of the Memphis metropolitan area. As of the 2010 census, it had a population of 10,176. Millington was granted the title "Flag City Tennessee" by the Tennessee Stat ...

) is a

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

player from the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. She played middle blocker for the

U.S The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

women's

team in the

1996 Summer Olympics The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

. Oden played volleyball for

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

and was named the 1990 AVCA Player of the Year. Oden's sister,

Kim Kim or KIM may refer to: Names * Kim (given name) * Kim (surname) ** Kim (Korean surname) *** Kim family (disambiguation), several dynasties **** Kim family (North Korea), the rulers of North Korea since Kim Il-sung in 1948 ** Kim, Vietnamese f ...

was also the AVCA Player of the Year (1985) playing for Stanford. Middle sister

Elaina Elena is a popular female given name of Greek origin. The name means "shining light". Nicknames of the name Elena are Lena, Lennie, Ella, Ellie, Nellie or Nena (less common). Other common variants are Alena (German, Czech, Russian, Belarusian, S ...

played for University of the Pacific. All three were Olympians. Oden was the first to be named to the AVCA All-America First-Team all four years of her collegiate eligibility (1989–1992). In 1991, she won the Honda-Broderick Award (now the

Honda Sports Award The Honda Sports Award is an annual award in the United States, given to the best collegiate female athlete in each of twelve sports. There are four nominees for each sport, and the twelve winners of the Honda Sports Award are automatically in th ...

) as the nation's best female collegiate volleyball player. Beverly Oden made the news in May 2007 when she was held in custody by Orange County sheriff deputies near her hometown of

Irvine, California Irvine () is a Planned community, master-planned city in South Orange County, California, United States, in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Irvine Company started developing the area in the 1960s and the city was formally incorporated on ...

in relation to a reported incident. The Olympic volleyball player was released after being questioned and spending an hour inside a

police car A police car (also called a police cruiser, police interceptor, patrol car, area car, cop car, prowl car, squad car, radio car, or radio motor patrol) is a ground vehicle used by police and law enforcement for transportation during patrols a ...

. Oden was found to have no connection with the incident in question and her ordeal prompted local community leaders to form the Oden Commission to hold discussions on

racial profiling Racial profiling or ethnic profiling is the act of suspecting, targeting or discriminating against a person on the basis of their ethnicity, religion or nationality, rather than on individual suspicion or available evidence. Racial profiling involv ...

between residents and

law enforcement Law enforcement is the activity of some members of government who act in an organized manner to enforce the law by discovering, deterring, rehabilitating, or punishing people who violate the rules and norms governing that society. The term en ...

. Beverly Oden is currently working as the Volleyball Guide for the popular website About.com. She is the author of numerous articles on volleyball and also releases a weekly e-mail newsletter.

References

External links

Team USA - 1996 Olympic Volleyball TeamsAbout.com Volleyball
1971 births American women's volleyball players Living people Volleyball players at the 1996 Summer Olympics Sportspeople from Irvine, California People from Millington, Tennessee Stanford Cardinal women's volleyball players Middle blockers Olympic volleyball players for the United States Competitors at the 1994 Goodwill Games Goodwill Games medalists in volleyball Pan American Games medalists in volleyball Pan American Games silver medalists for the United States Medalists at the 1995 Pan American Games {{US-volleyball-bio-stub