C.Vivian Stringer reaches 1,000 career wins as Rutgers tops CCSU

PISCATAWAY, N.J. -- History was made at the Rutgers Athletic Center on Tuesday night as Rutgers women’s basketball head coach C. Vivian Stringer earned career win No. 1,000 as her Scarlet Knights defeated Central Connecticut State, 68-32, in front of 4500+ fans.

With the victory, she joined Pat Summitt, Tara VanDerveer, Geno Auriemma, and Sylvia Hatchell to reach the milestone at the D-I level for women’s basketball. Division-II coach Barbara Stevens also has reached the mark.

Stringer owns a career 1,000-402 record in her 48th season and 24th at the helm of the Scarlet Knights and ranks sixth all-time in the women's game in wins.

“I think it’s special,” Stringer said on Monday afternoon in a teleconference in which TKR participated in. “I appreciate the people that appreciated the love the love I had for the game. I’m grateful that I’ve had the opportunity to shape the lives of the young women that I’ve had. What I love about this game is you can so quickly be down and yet, you can find a way and overcome what you are fearful of. This game teaches you how to be humble, appreciative, and respectful. I’ve seen it all.

“I’ve been very fortunate to have athletic directors and presidents who have believed in me.”

Stringer has mentioned she wishes she reached the 1,000th wins mark a year ago and that she wanted to get it over but, but she recognized that it is a big deal.

"I appreciate the opportunity that I've had to coach so many outstanding players and to have the benefit of having so many great coaches that have worked and diligently so hard to allow us to get to this point. I'll be grateful, happy, and it's something that I never thought about,” Stringer said on Media Day last month. “When I think about it, it’s a long time and a lot of people, you know.”

A 2009 inductee to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, Stringer has guided three different programs to the Final Four of the NCAA Tournament - Rutgers in 2000 and 2007, Iowa in 1993, and Cheyney State in 1982.

The legendary coach got her start at Cheyney as a volunteer before going to Iowa and then to Rutgers as the program's first full-time women's head coach.

Stringer has coached countless talented players who went on to the WNBA (18 have been picked in the WNBA Draft) and has endured many challenges in life while coaching including her daughter getting spinal meningitis prior to Cheyney’s run to the Final Four, the death of her husband Bill in 1992, breast cancer herself, and her mother’s passing in 2016.

Stringer, a native of Edenborn, Pa., was also enshrined to the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in 2001 and won a gold medal as an assistant coach for Team USA at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece. She also earned bronze and silver medals as the head coach of the 1991 Pan-American Games and in 1985 at the World University Games respectively. As an assistant in 1980, Stringer also received a bronze medal at the William Jones Cup.

Throughout the years, Stringer, who has put together tough schedules for her teams, has recruited at a high level, expects the best, and has had success thanks for suffocating defense. She is the catalyst of the aggressive full-court “55 defense” which utilizes both presses and traps. Her teams have prided themselves on being a family on and off the court as well.

Stringer has led the Scarlet Knights to 15 NCAA Tournaments.

HALL OF FAME INDUCTIONS:
• Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame (2009)
• Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame (2001)
• International Women’s Sports Hall of Fame (2006)
• New Jersey Women’s Hall of Fame (2012)
• Sports Hall of Fame of New Jersey (2005)
• University of Iowa Athletics Hall of Fame (2006)
• Joe Cipriano/Jim Valvano Nike Hall of Fame Award (1993)
• Sport in Society Hall of Fame (2005)
• Fayette County Sports Hall of Fame (2010)
• Communiplex Hall of Fame (1987)

COACH OF THE YEAR:
• Naismith National Coach of the Year (1993)
• NCAA, Wade Trophy National Coach of the Year (1982)
• Two-time Converse National Coach of the Year (1988, 1993)
• Black Coaches Association Coach of the Year (1993, 1998)
• Sports Illustrated Coach of the Year (1993)
• USA Today Coach of the Year (1993)
• Los Angeles Times Coach of the Year (1993)
• Seven-time finalist for Naismith National Coach of the Year Award (1999, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2008, 2009)
• Two-time BIG EAST Conference Coach of the Year (1998, 2005)
• Two-time Big Ten Conference Coach of the Year (1991, 1993)
• Three-time NCAA District V Coach of the Year (1985, 1988, 1993)
• Two-time WBCA District I Coach of the Year (1998, 2006)
• NCAA District II Coach of the Year (1983)
• Seven-time Metropolitan Basketball Writers Association Coach of the Year (1998, 1999, 2000, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008)
• Three-time New Jersey Basketball Coaches Association Coach of the Year (1998, 1999, 2000)
• Big Ten Sportswriters’ Coach of the Year (1993)
• Rainbow Push Organization Coach of the Year (2000)
• Giant Steps Coach of the Year (1994)
• Pennsylvania AIAW Coach of the Year (1982)
• Philadelphia Sportswriters’ Coach of the Year (1981, 1980)

BY THE NUMBERS:
• Sixth all-time in wins (all divisions) with 977 career victories, fifth among active head coaches (all divisions)
• First coach (men’s or women’s) to lead three different schools to the NCAA Final Four (Cheyney 1982; Iowa - 1993; Rutgers - 2000, 2007)
• Fourth women’s coach and seventh coach all-time (men’s or women’s) to register 900 wins
• Third women’s coach to record 750, 800 and 850 wins
• First African-American Division I coach (men’s or women’s) to reach 900 victory mark
• 26 NCAA Tournaments appearances (1982-83, 1986-94, 1998-2001, 2003-2012, 2015)
• Nine NCAA Tournament Regional Finals (1982, 1987, 1988, 1993, 1999, 2000, 2005, 2007, 2008)
• 41 All-BIG EAST honorees, including four Defensive Players of the Year
• Nation’s best defensive team in 1981, 1983 and 1993
• Nation’s second-best defensive team in 1985, 2005, 2006 and 2008
• 1979, 1980, 1981 and 1982 Pennsylvania AIAW state champions

NAMED IN HONOR OF C. VIVIAN STRINGER’S LEGACY:
• WBCA/Black Coaches Association annual Coach of the Year Award (2013)
• Nike’s second child development center in Beaverton, Ore.
• U.S. Sports Academy Medallion Award of Sport for Women’s Coaching (2002)

PUBLICATIONS:
• New York Times Bestseller - Standing Tall, A Memoir of Tragedy and Triumph (2008)

FILMOGRAPHY:
• PBS - “Makers: Women Who Make America, the Story of How Women Changed America” (2013)
• ESPN Films: Nine For XI Feature “Coach” – winner, Tribeca Film Festival Best Documentary Short (2013)
• Partisan Pictures – “It’s A Game Ladies” – Emmy Nomination; winner, Fr. Lauderdale Film Festival Best Documentary; winner, Silverdocs AFI Film Festival, Audience Award Best Feature Film (2003)
• The Oprah Winfrey Show (2008)
• The 700 Club (2008)
• The Game 365 – MSG Network (2010)

AWARDS/HONORS OF DISTINCTION:
• “101 Most Influential Minorities in Sports,” Sports Illustrated (2003)
• New York Times Year-End “Five Who Left Footprints” (2007)
• Carol Eckman Award (1993)
• Black Coaches Association Lifetime Achievement Award (2004)
• Who’s Who Among Black Americans
• NAACP Jackie Robinson Award - New Brunswick, N.J.
• New Jersey Federation of Women’s Clubs of GFWC and Douglass Residential College Woman of Achievement (2017)
• Rutgers University Student Affairs - Sojourner Truth Phenomenal Woman Award (2017)
• Hank Aaron Champion for Justice Award (2015)
• Loyal Sons and Daughters of Rutgers, given by Rutgers Alumni Association - fourth oldest in nation (2010)
• Distinguished Daughter of Pennsylvania (2009)
• Distinguished Legendary Education Leadership Advocate Award, National Coalition of 100 Black Women (2009)
• Spelman College Legacy of Leadership Award (2012)
• Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Award of Merit (2012)
• Honoree, Smithsonian Institute, Black Women in Sports
• Barbara Boggs Sigmund Award by Womanspace (2010)
• Girl Scouts of America Woman of Distinction - Delaware-Raritan, N.J. (2004)
• Girl Scouts of America Woman of Distinction - Greater Essex and Hudson Counties, N.J. (2002)
• Boy Scouts of America Tribute to Women Award (2015)
• Executive Women of New Jersey Honoree (2004)
• National Association of Negro Business and Professional Women’s Club Woman of the Year - Union County, N.J. (1998)
• City News 100 Most Influential Award (1998)
• Iowa City Magazine’s Person of the Year (1994)
• Reggie McKenzie Foundation Commitment to Character Award (1994)

HONORARY DEGREES:
• Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters, University of Iowa (2010)
• Honorary Doctorate of Humanities, Howard University (2009)
• Honorary Doctorate of Law, Mount Ida College (2010)

INTERNATIONAL EXPERIENCE:
• Assistant coach, Olympic Team, gold medal (2004 - Athens, Greece)
• Head coach, U.S. Pan-American Games, bronze medal (1991 - Havana,Cuba)
• Head coach, World Championship Qualification Tournament, gold medal (1989 - Sao Paulo, Brazil)
• Head coach, World University Games, silver medal (1984 - Kobe, Japan)
• Head coach, U.S. Olympic Festival East Team, bronze medal (1982 - Indianapolis, IN)
• Assistant coach, Jones Cup, bronze medal (1980 - Taiwan)

C. Vivian Stringer Coaching Record

• 251-51 in 12 seasons at Cheyney State
• 269-84 in 12 seasons at Iowa
• 480-267 and counting at Rutgers (24th season)