Beverly Oden
Beverly ("Bev") Oden (born March 19, 1971, in Millington, Tennessee) is a volleyball player from the United States. She played middle blocker for the U.S women's volleyball team in the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia. Oden played volleyball for Stanford University and was named the 1990 AVCA Player of the Year. Oden's sister, Kim was also the AVCA Player of the Year (1985) playing for Stanford. Middle sister Elaina 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) 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 in relation to a reported incident. The Olympic volleyball player was released after being questioned and spending an hour inside a police car. 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 between residents and law enforcement. 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.