{"id":878736,"date":"2026-10-11T16:34:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-11T16:34:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/878736\/"},"modified":"2026-10-11T16:34:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-11T16:34:09","slug":"heidi-burge-horton-dies-at-54-basketball-legend-inspired-disney-channel-movie-double-teamed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/878736\/","title":{"rendered":"Heidi Burge Horton Dies at 54, Basketball Legend Inspired Disney Channel Movie &#8216;Double Teamed&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium mui-m06sf4\">Former Virginia standout and WNBA forward Heidi Burge Horton died this past Monday at the age of 54.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium mui-m06sf4\">&#8220;We are deeply saddened by the passing of Heidi Burge Horton,&#8221; her alma mater said on social media. &#8220;Heidi was a cherished member of the Virginia Women&#8217;s Basketball family, her legacy will forever be a part of Virginia Athletics. Our sincere condolences to her family and loved ones.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium mui-m06sf4\">South Carolina women&#8217;s basketball coach Dawn Staley, who was college teammates with Horton, said that &#8220;we are all heartbroken.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium mui-m06sf4\">The lives of Horton and twin sister Heather were immortalized in the Disney Channel Original Movie Double Teamed. The film chronicled their time at Palos Verdes High School in California. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium mui-m06sf4\">Their journey continued in college at Virginia.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium mui-m06sf4\">Horton averaged 8.9 points and 6.4 rebounds across four seasons. She was on the Cavaliers squads that made three straight Final Four appearances from 1990-92 and finished runner-up to Tennessee in 1991.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium mui-m06sf4\">Horton went overseas to play professionally until the WNBA launched in 1997. She suited up for the Los Angeles Sparks during the league&#8217;s inaugural season and spent 1998 with the Washington Mystics.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium mui-m06sf4\">According to Chron&#8217;s <a class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__ui__link__medium_strong mui-mlpnpn\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.chron.com\/culture\/article\/heidi-burge-horton-dead-22468784.php\">Gwen Howerton<\/a>, Horton eventually landed in Houston after a back injury ended her playing career. She founded Hoops School to coach youth basketball players.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Virginia standout and WNBA forward Heidi Burge Horton died this past Monday at the age of 54.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":878737,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[99,434],"class_list":["post-878736","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/878736","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=878736"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/878736\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/878737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=878736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=878736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=878736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}