C. Vivian Stringer facts for kids
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Stringer in 2020
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| Biographical details | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Born | March 16, 1948 Edenborn, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
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| Alma mater | Slippery Rock | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Coaching career (HC unless noted) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1972–1983 | Cheyney State | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1983–1995 | Iowa | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1995–2022 | Rutgers | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Head coaching record | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Overall | 1055–426 (.712) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Accomplishments and honors | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Championships | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Basketball Hall of Fame Inducted in 2009 |
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| Women's Basketball Hall of Fame | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Medal record
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Charlaine Vivian Stringer (born March 16, 1948) is a famous American former basketball coach. She has one of the best coaching records in the history of women's basketball. She was the head coach for the Rutgers University women's basketball team from 1995 until she retired in 2022.
Coach Stringer is the first coach in NCAA history to lead three different women's teams to the NCAA Final Four. These teams were Rutgers in 2000 and 2007, the University of Iowa in 1993, and Cheyney State College in 1982. She is the fifth coach with the most wins in women's college basketball history. She was named the Naismith College Coach of the Year in 1993 and is a member of the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame. In 2009, she was also added to the Basketball Hall of Fame. On February 26, 2013, Coach Stringer won her 900th game. This made her only the fourth coach in women's basketball history to reach this amazing number of wins.
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About C. Vivian Stringer
Coach Stringer grew up in Edenborn, Pennsylvania. She is a proud member of the Alumni Hall of Fame at her college. In high school, she took legal action against her school because they would not let her be a cheerleader due to her race. She won the case and became the first black cheerleader in her town since the 1950s.
She went to Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania. There, she was a talented athlete, playing four different sports: basketball, softball, volleyball, and field hockey. C. Vivian Stringer and her late husband, William D. Stringer, had three children: David, Janine (Nina), and Justin. She also has five siblings.
Her Coaching Journey
Coach Stringer started coaching at Rutgers in July 1995. Before that, she coached for 23 years at Cheyney State and the University of Iowa. She once shared that a big reason she moved to Rutgers was so her children could learn more about their culture. Iowa, where they lived before, had mostly white residents.
In 1998, her Rutgers team had a great season, winning 22 games and losing only 10. They also won the Big East title. In 2000, her team made it all the way to the Final Four in the NCAA Tournament.
In 2007, Rutgers reached the NCAA Tournament's Final Four again. They surprised everyone by beating the top-ranked team, Duke.
In 2008, Coach Stringer wrote a book about her life called Standing Tall: A Memoir of Tragedy and Triumph. Also in 2008, she became only the third women's basketball coach to win 800 games in her career. She led the Scarlet Knights to the Elite Eight that year, where they lost to the University of Connecticut.
In 2018, she achieved another huge milestone by winning her 1,000th game as a head coach. This made her the first African-American college basketball coach to reach 1,000 wins.
Awards and Special Honors
Coach Stringer has received many awards for her great work and dedication to basketball.
- In 2001, she was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame.
- In 2008, she received an honorary degree from Howard University. She also became an honorary member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority.
- She has been named the National Coach of the Year three times (in 1982, 1988, and 1993).
- She was also named Coach of the Year by Sports Illustrated, USA Today, and the Los Angeles Times in 1993.
- She won the Carol Eckman Award in 1993. This award honors a coach who shows great spirit, courage, honesty, and leadership in women's basketball.
- The U.S. Sports Academy created an award named after her: the C. Vivian Stringer Medallion Award of Sport for Women's Coaching.
- In 2003, Sports Illustrated recognized her as one of the "101 Most Influential Minorities in Sports."
- In 2004, she received the Black Coaches Association's Lifetime Achievement Award.
- In 2006, she was inducted into the International Women's Sports Hall of Fame.
Coach Stringer has also coached for the USA Basketball team. She was an assistant coach for the gold-medal winning U.S. Olympic Team in 2004. She also led other U.S. teams to medals in international competitions, including a silver medal at the World University Games in Japan in 1985 and a bronze medal at the Pan American Games in Cuba in 1991.
She helped create the Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA). She served on its Board of Directors and other important committees.
In 2008, a child development center at Nike World Headquarters in Oregon was named the C. Vivian Stringer Child Development Center. This center helps care for and educate about 300 children. Nike names its buildings after some of the world's best athletes and coaches. Coach Stringer is the third woman, the second coach, and the first African-American woman to have a building named after her on Nike's campus.
On April 6, 2009, it was announced that she would be inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame. She was honored alongside basketball legends like Michael Jordan. The official ceremony took place on September 11, 2009.
In 2022, the basketball court at the Rutgers Scarlet Knights stadium in New Jersey was renamed in her honor.
USA Basketball Experience
Coach Stringer was an assistant coach for the US team at the William Jones Cup competition in Taiwan in 1980. The team played well and won a bronze medal.
In 1985, she was the head coach for the US team at the World University Games in Japan. Her team won many games easily. They made it to the gold medal game against the USSR. The US team fought hard but earned the silver medal.
Documentary Film
Coach Stringer and her Rutgers team were featured in a 2004 documentary called This Is a Game, Ladies. The film followed the team during their 2000–01 season and was shown on PBS.
See also
- List of college women's basketball career coaching wins leaders
