User:Ccwwcc/Althea Gwyn

Althea R. Gwyn (1957 – 2022) was an American former professional basketball player who competed in the Women's Professional Basketball League, a precursor to the Women's National Basketball Association.

Early life
Althea Gwyn attended Amityville Memorial High School and played basketball there, where she was a freshman MVP and set a women's single-game scoring record of 49 points.

College career
Though Gwyn did not initially consider attending college, she was recruited to play women's basketball at Queens College by Lucille Kyvallos in 1974. In 1978, she became the first Queens College women's basketball student-athlete to earn All-American honors, and was the nation's leading rebounder in the 1976-1977 and 1977-1978 seasons.

As a member of the Queens College team, she played in the first women's college basketball game ever held at Madison Square Garden on February 22, 1975, against Immaculata College.

Professional career
In 1978, Gwyn joined the New York Stars, one of eight teams in the original Women's Professional Basketball League, as a center after leaving Queens College and a year of playing amateur basketball in Belgium. While some of her contemporaries put off joining the first professional league for women's basketball in order to remain at amateur status and play in the 1980 Olympics, Gwyn renounced her Olympic eligibility, stating "For me, pro ball is just as important as the Olympics".

Gwyn was a major figure in the WPBL, leading the league in rebounds and number two in scoring in the 1978-1979 season and regularly scoring 35 points in a game. After two seasons with the Stars, Gwyn signed with the New England Gulls. As part of the Gulls, Gwyn participated in a players' protest when team ownership refused to pay players, leaving the court and shouting "No pay, no play!" .

Awards and honors
Gwyn was inducted into the Queens College Athletics Hall of Fame in 2013, and her jersey number 31 was retired. In addition, the entire 1978 Queens College Women's Basketball team (of which she was a part) was inducted into the New York City Basketball Hall of Fame.

In 2018, the original members of the Women's Professional Basketball League were inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame as "Trailblazers of the Game".

After basketball
After retiring from basketball, Althea Gwyn became a firefighter in the fire department in Fayetteville, North Carolina. She died on January 9, 2022.