FIRST LADY OF BASKETBALL
Gary
Norris Gray
2/28/05
Thirty years ago in North- Eastern Pennsylvania, Cheyney State
College (now University), a predominately African American College, hired C.
Vivian Stringer to coach their women s basketball team. This was her first
job. With this hire she brought notoriety and fame because this was the first
predominated African American school into NCAA history. Coach Stringer brought
Cheyney State College out of the darkness and into the limelight, reaching the
final four.
In 1971 C. Vivian Stringer started on her voyage across America s
basketball courts. It all began in the Eastern countryside of the Pennsylvania
Mountains, to the cornfields of Central Iowa, with her last stop in the inner
city streets of North-Central Jersey. Wherever this coach went there was clear
evidence of improvement in the skills of the women s basketball program--she
improved the Lady Wolves, the Lady Hawkeyes, and Lady Scarlet Knights.
It is said that she is responsible for all of these schools being
placed on the sports map. This year is her 11th season at Rutgers
University (New Brunswick, New Jersey). It appears that The Lady Knights will
win the Big East Conference in 2005. In this same year, she will also reach
her 700th victory. Only three other female head coaches have
accomplished this achievement, and she is the only African American. Coach Pat
Summitt of the University of Tennessee, Coach Tara VenDeever of Stanford
University, and Coach Jody Conradt of the University of Texas all have reached
that magic number.
The Lady Knights have become a defensive vice-grip on the
basketball floor. The Lady Scarlet Knights invoked the zone trap defense. Many
Big East teams were not fast enough to push the ball up court, which caused
many turnovers, and the Lady Knights quickly turned them into Rutgers
points. The record shows that the Lady Knights have kept their opponents at 54
points per game this year. It is apparent that coach Stringer heeded the
advice of her old friend and colleague Coach John Cheney of Temple University.
These two coaches formed a friendship when they both coached at Cheyney State
University.
Mrs. Stringer is the only female coach to take three different
schools to the NCAA s Final Four, a feat that has never been accomplished by
any male coach. There are many that think that this feat might not be repeated
again. Mrs. Stringer has many NCAA Final Four, Sweet Sixteen, and Elite Eight,
tournaments appearances
Coach Stringer is the mother of three adult children, and she is
also the mother of over three hundred young women basketball players from
includes Cheyney State, The University of Iowa, New Jersey s Rutgers
University and numerous women s Olympic teams. She has guided her teams to
victory. She has been coach of the year many times and is in the class of 2001
Women s Basketball Hall of Fame and the Black College Coaches Hall of Fame.
Coach Stringer has had many personal challenges, many trails and
tribulations. She had to cope with the untimely death of her husband, provide
consistent personal needs of a disabled daughter, the near death of her
youngest son who was in an automobile accident and her oldest son brush
against the law. Coach Stringer has stood the test of time.
We applaud her and consider her THE FIRST LADY OF THE HARDWOODS. We
all should salute her in Black History Month.
THAT IS THE GRAY LINE !
..................................
