Michelle Edwards

Michelle Edwards (born March 6, 1966) is an American retired professional women's basketball player.

In Stringer's first season 1983–84, the record improved to 17–10.

Edwards was one of the first recruits, and joined Stringer in her second year at Iowa.

The team would go 20–8 in her freshman year, and improved that record each of the four years Edwards was at Iowa.

The team finished second in the Big Ten in her freshman and sophomore years, then in a tie for first place as a junior, and sole possession of first place in her senior year.

In her freshman year, Iowa played Ohio State.

The Ohio State team was unbeaten in conference play, while Iowa had just a single loss.

She was a member of the United States women's national basketball team, that claimed the bronze medal at the 1991 Pan American Games in Havana, Cuba.

Allocated to the Cleveland Rockers in the 1997 WNBA draft, the 5'9" guard out of the University of Iowa played for Cleveland and the Seattle Storm during her career. She also coached at Rutgers University.

Unlike many notable basketball players, Edwards did not pick up the game at a young age.

She was athletic, but her court of choice was a tennis court.

She also skied, and dreamed of becoming the first black Olympic racer, although a case of frostbite cooled her interest in skiing.

She spent a lot of time with her older brother Rodney, visiting a local park.

He would go to the basketball court, but Edwards usually stopped to play with other girls where the swings were located.

As she became a teenager, she started noticing boys, and would head over to the basketball court, not to play, but just to watch.

At first, she was too shy to join in, but eventually she did and soon was challenging some of the boys to one-on-one contests.

She didn't always win, but she won more than she lost.

Her skill soon earned her a nickname "Ice" because of her cool moves.

Edwards played high school basketball for Cathedral High in Boston, where she would score over 2000 points in her high school career, the first girl in Massachusetts history to reach that level.

Her career earned her a spot in the high school Hall of Fame

While in high school she was noticed by Alfreda Harris, a Boston educator who had founded the Shelburne Center in Roxbury Massachusetts, place where Edwards played.

Harris would later go on to become the first female head coach at the university of Massachusetts, Boston campus, and later would be inducted into their Hall of Fame.

Harris noticed Edwards, and persuaded her to join a local AAU basketball team.

College coaches learned about Edwards, and both Virginia and USC showed interest.

Virginia sent a young assistant, Geno Auriemma to recruit her.

C. Vivian Stringer had cultivated a relationship with Harris while Stringer was at Cheyney State.

This relationship continued, even after Stringer moved to take the head coaching position in Iowa.

A women interviewing for an assistant coaching position told Stringer about a player she had seen in the Boston area.

Stringer had no contact information, and started calling the high school, even though it was summer, trying to contact her.

One day, she reached a janitor.

She asked if he knew Edwards and he responded, "Who, Ice? Are you kidding me? That girl is the 'truth'."

He explained that her coach was Alfreda Harris, so Stringer called Harris.

She wasn't sure that Harris would remember her, but she did, and responded, "It's about time, Stringer. She's only the best damn player in America."

Stringer began to recruit Edwards.

On a recruiting visit, Edwards was embarrassed to admit she didn't know where Iowa was, so Stringer pulled out a map to show her.

Stringer convinced her to enroll at Iowa.

She was sympathetic, as she had not known where Iowa was, confusing it with Idaho, when Stringer had first been approached for the job.

Stringer had taken over a program at Iowa that had produced losing records for the prior three years.

Edwards was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2014.

Edwards was born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts.