Gail Marquis
Gail Annette Marquis was born on November 18, 1954, in New York City. She is 6 feet tall and is a former American basketball player who competed in the 1976 Summer Olympics.
Marquis played college basketball at Queens College, City University of New York, where she was a two-time All-American. She helped make history on February 22, 1975, when Queens College played the first women’s basketball game at Madison Square Garden, coached by Lucille Kyvallos. One of her teammates was Donna Orender. Queens lost that game to Immaculata College.
She joined the USA Basketball National Team for the first Olympic women's basketball competition in 1976 in Montreal. The team finished with a 3–2 record, losing to the Soviet Union in the semifinals and defeating Czechoslovakia in the final to win the silver medal. Marquis also played at the 1977 World University Games in Sofia. She had a double-double in the opening win over Germany (17 points, 11 rebounds) and scored 16 in a close win over Romania, but the United States lost to the USSR and earned another silver medal. Marquis was the third-leading scorer on the team (12.0 ppg) and the second-leading rebounder (7.0 rpg).
In addition to the national team, Marquis played for the French Federation of Basketball and in the United States for the New York Stars and the New Jersey Gems in the Women’s Basketball League. The Stars won a championship in 1980.
In 2009, Marquis became the first woman of color inducted into the New York City Basketball Hall of Fame. After basketball, she became a Wall Street executive, earning stockbroker certification (Series 7) and working for firms including Dean Witter Reynolds, PaineWebber, UBS, Merrill Lynch, and JPMorgan Chase.
Marquis is known for supporting women’s causes. She has worked with Dress for Success and PowerPlay NYC and spoke at the United Nations 57th Commission on the Status of Women in 2013. Her life story was featured in a 2016 University of Phoenix commercial.
She grew up in Queens, New York, and one of her early jobs was as a vendor at Shea Stadium. In 2011, she married Audrey Smaltz.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 17:47 (CET).