C. Vivian Stringer

Charlaine Vivian Stringer (born March 16, 1948)

Stringer is the first coach in NCAA history to lead three different women's programs to the NCAA Final Four: Rutgers in 2000 and 2007, the University of Iowa in 1993, and Cheyney State College (now Cheyney University of Pennsylvania) in 1982. She is the fifth winningest coach in women's college basketball history. She was honored as the Naismith College Coach of the Year for women's basketball in 1993, and is a member of the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame. She was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame in April 2009, and was inducted in September of that year. On February 26, 2013, Stringer won her 900th game, becoming only the fourth coach in women's basketball history to reach this mark, joining Pat Summitt, Sylvia Hatchell, and Jody Conradt. She concluded her coaching career with a total of 1,055 victories, ranking her among the winningest coaches in college basketball history.

Biography Stringer is a native of Edenborn, Pennsylvania, and a member of the Alumni Hall of Fame at her alma mater. In high school she sued her school for not allowing her to be a cheerleader because of her race. She won the case and was given a spot on her school's cheerleading squad, becoming the first black cheerleader in her town since 1955–1958, when Dolores Dantzler was on the team. She is a graduate of Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania where she was a four-sport athlete, participating in basketball, softball, volleyball, and field hockey. In 1998 her team posted its first 20-win season in four years (22–10), winning the Big East title with a 14–4 regular-season record. In the postseason, the Scarlet Knights advanced to the NCAA Tournament's Sweet 16 with a 62–61 win against Iowa State. In 2000, her team went to the Final Four.

In 2007, Rutgers again reached the NCAA Tournament's Final Four after upsetting #1 seed Duke. After the 2007 tournament, Stringer served as spokesperson for the Rutgers team during a media firestorm over a derogatory reference to the team made on the radio and television program Imus in the Morning. The Rutgers players eventually accepted an apology from talk-show host Don Imus. In the wake of the controversy, New York senator and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton also met with Stringer.

In early March 2008, Stringer's autobiography, titled Standing Tall: A Memoir of Tragedy and Triumph, was released through Crown Books.

Also, on February 27, 2008, Stringer became the third women's basketball coach to win 800 career games. She led the Scarlet Knights to the Elite Eight in 2008 where they lost to fellow women's basketball powerhouse, the University of Connecticut.

For the 2008–09 season, five McDonald's All-Americans have been recruited by Stringer to play at Rutgers.

In 2018, she won her 1,000th game as a head coach, which made her the first African-American college basketball coach to win 1,000 games.

Awards and honors In recognition of her many accomplishments and service to the game, Stringer was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame on June 9, 2001.

She was honored with the degree of Honorary Doctor of Humanities from Howard University on May 10, 2008, the university's 140th commencement address. She was also inducted as an honorary member of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority on July 15, 2008, during the sorority's Centennial Ball in Washington, DC.

Stringer has been named the National Coach of the Year three times (Wade Trophy, 1982; Converse, 1988; and Naismith, 1993) by her peers. She also was named the 1988 Russell Athletic/WBCA National Coach of the Year,

Stringer received the 1993 Carol Eckman Award, which acknowledges the coach most demonstrating spirit, courage, integrity, commitment, leadership and service to the game of women's basketball. her first USA Basketball experience came as an assistant for the bronze-medal 1980 USA Jones Cup Team. Stringer also has had extensive head-coaching experience in the national program, leading the 1982 U.S. Olympic Festival East Team to a bronze medal, the 1985 U.S. World University Games Team (Kobe, Japan) to a silver, the 1989 U.S. World Championship Qualifying Team (São Paulo, Brazil) to a gold and a qualification for the following year's FIBA World Championship, and the 1991 Pan American Games Team (Havana, Cuba) to a bronze medal.

The C. Vivian Stringer Child Development Center was dedicated on Tuesday, September 9, 2008. The ceremony took place at Nike World Headquarters on the Nike campus in Beaverton, Oregon. The Stringer Center, a facility, opened in June 2008. The 2009 inductees were officially enshrined to the Basketball Hall of Fame on September 11, 2009, in Springfield, Massachusetts.

On October 19, 2022, the Rutgers Scarlet Knights announced the renaming of the court inside the basketball stadium in Piscataway, NJ in honor of Coach Stringer.

USA Basketball Stringer was chosen as the assistant coach of the team representing the US in 1980 at the William Jones Cup competition in Taipei, Taiwan. The team started out strong, winning their first three games. Then they faced the Republic of China – Blue team, who beat the USA 86–81. They won their next four games, including a close match against the undefeated Republic of China – White team, which they won 84–82, and a rematch against the Blue team, which they won 66–62. With a 4–0 record in medal round play, they simply had to beat their last opponent, South Korea, who had a 3–1 record, to win the gold. However, South Korea won the game 90–79. The Republic of China – White also won, leaving three teams tied with 4–1 records. The tie-breaker was point differential, and this left the USA team with the bronze medal. Mary Ostrowski and Valerie Still made the All-Tournament Team.

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