The NBA Finals date back to 1947 (when they were known as the Basketball Association of America Finals) and the very 1st NCAA tourney was held in 1939. Olympic basketball competition is even older: it debuted as a demonstration event in 1904 and the men’s version became a medal sport in 1936, with the women finally getting their chance to go for the gold in 1976. The United States has dominated Olympic basketball competition from the start: the men have won 16 gold medals in the 19 tournaments they have participated in during the past 87 years, while the women have won 9 gold medals in the 11 tournaments in which they have competed during the past 47 years. While we have to wait 1 more year until the 2024 Olympics in Paris, HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel will fill the void by interviewing as many prior Olympic players/coaches as possible. We continue our coverage by chatting with Lindsay Schnell about C. Vivian Stringer’s career, which included winning a gold medal and being inducted into the Women’s Basketball/Naismith Basketball Halls of Fame. Today is the 1-year anniversary of Rutgers announcing that it was renaming the court inside its basketball stadium in honor of Coach Stringer on October 19, 2022, so we take this time to remember her remarkable career.
In the 1960s Stringer sued her Pennsylvania high school for not allowing her to become a cheerleader because of her race (and won), and in 2019 she became the 1st African-American college basketball coach to win 1000 games: what role has race played in her life both on and off the court? Race has been the foundation of her career in so many ways. She is a pioneer both on/off the floor and has been adamant about creating opportunities for coaches of color (especially women). She did an event a couple of years ago with some other coaches and said that 1 thing she tried to impress upon other head coaches was to not just hire a young Black woman to recruit. She wanted them in the locker room: creating game plans, developing players, etc. She was passionate about advocating for people who looked like her. Dawn Staley is the face of women’s college basketball and says all the time that she would not be here without Coach Stringer. When Stringer was at Cheyney State she coached alongside a pioneer of the men’s game in John Chaney: they were not afraid to confront the uncomfortable truth and were a powerhouse coaching couple, which I assume was a huge influence on her life. Coach Chaney is revered across all sports, which is an impressive footnote on her own resume.
She was a 3-time national COY: what made her such a great coach? When you have sustained success at several schools it means that you are a good teacher of the game. Her recruiting showed the rare mix of being able to find kids who were overlooked while also building relationships with the players she did recruit. She sent a ton of players to the WNBA and had high standards for her players both on/off the floor.
She was known for her match-up zone defense (finishing top-5 in the nation in PPG allowed on several occasions) and very difficult non-conference schedules (including facing the #1 team in the nation in back-to-back games and facing multiple opponents each year who advanced to the Final 4): was it as simple as defense + competition = success or is there a lot more to it? Good defensive teams find ways to win because they find ways to hang around. She was fearless in her life and dealt with some really tough personal challenges: she tackled them head on and then talked about them. After dealing with the death of her husband and a child with special needs, scheduling a top-5 opponent was probably a walk in the park. Similar to Pat Summitt, she realized that was good for the game, and that fearlessness rubbed off on her players as well.
In 2004 she won an Olympic gold medal as an assistant coach for Team USA: what did it mean to her to represent her country, and what did it mean to her to win a gold medal? We would all agree that we need more Black women in prominent roles across our country. Seeing her in that position was good for both young coaches/players. Women’s basketball is dominated in the US by Black women so you also need people who look like that on the sideline. It is just 1 of many things on her resume that is so impressive.
In April of 2007 as head coach at Rutgers she set a Final 4 record by holding LSU to 35 PTS in the national semifinal game (despite not having a single senior on her roster), then 2 days later lost to Tennessee in the title game, then the next day syndicated radio host Don Imus referred to the Scarlet Knights as “nappy-headed hos”, followed 8 days later by New Jersey governor Jon Corzine almost getting killed in a car accident while heading to the governor’s mansion to host a meeting where Imus apologized to the team in person: what impact did that 12-day stretch have on her life (if any)? The impact on the women’s basketball community was to show how deeply embedded racism is in our country and how it is a never-ending conversation for Black women. She could have just reveled in her team’s success but confronted it head-on. Her willingness to speak out and recognize her platform to use it for good was important. I think about how many times she has been “the voice” in women’s basketball and she handled it (as always) with grace.
In the 2014 Women’s NIT title game Tyler Scaife scored 18 PTS including a coast-to-coast basket with 2 seconds left to give Rutgers a 2-PT win over UTEP: what did it mean to her to win a title? Anytime you can end your season with a win it is a positive and there is carry-over into the next season. Had they avoided the juggernaut that was UConn in 2015 I think they would have gone very far in that NCAA tourney. Some teams who get into the NIT just shrug their shoulders and get upset but she wanted her team to strive for excellence in every single game.
She made 28 NCAA tourneys and was the 1st coach (men’s or women’s) to lead 3 different schools (Cheyney State/Iowa/Rutgers) to the Final 4: how was she able to have so much success at so many different schools? It goes back to her being a great teacher of the game. She was a good X’s and O’s coach, which matters a lot. That gap of being a tactician is bigger in the women’s game than in the men’s game. She believed that her team could win and understood the advantages/disadvantages at each school while finding the positives. It is easy to forget the success she had because it was a while ago but the bottom line is that she is a powerhouse.
She remains the 5th winningest coach in women’s basketball history with 1055 wins and is the only women’s coach to spend 50 years on the sideline: why did she decide to stick around for so long (nobody else even has 45 years under their belt)? 1 important thing to note is that Summitt was taken from us at a young age: if she was still alive then I think she would still be stalking the Vols’ sideline. Basketball kept Vivian going: it gave her a reason to get out of bed. Her daughter received great care at the Iowa Children’s Hospital, which was a big factor in her moving to Iowa. In the 2021 NCAA tourney Rutgers almost beat BYU after being down by a large amount: I laughed because she was making yet another run and making other teams look foolish!
She was inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in 2001 and the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2009: what did it mean to her to receive such outstanding honors? If you read her bio in the Naismith Hall of Fame, the 1st point they make is that she was a coal miner’s daughter. She grew up in a small town with parents who preached that you could achieve anything via hard work, which encapsulates all of her success. She belongs in both Halls and she has proved that you can work your way up from a humble background. When she was at an HBCU she took them to the Final 4, then made it back there at Iowa more than a decade later. Every time I heard her at a press conference/event I personally felt inspired: I can only imagine what her pregame speeches were like!
When people look back on her career, how do you think that she should be remembered the most? As someone who fought tirelessly for Black women to be in positions of power in a game that they dominated from a player perspective. She talked openly about players needing to see other Black women on the sideline balancing a career/family. Her family was an important part of every school she was at. I think about Staley building a powerhouse at South Carolina with 2 NCAA titles (and counting): she always says that she is here because of what Coach Stringer wanted for their sport. As we continue to go forward and see men/women of color get hired as coaches, it all goes back to Coach Stringer.
