Stringer Signs Contract Extension
Sep 14 | Women's Basketball
PISCATAWAY, NJ - Rutgers women's basketball head coach C. Vivian Stringer has signed a three-year contract extension that will keep her 'On the Banks' through the 2007-2008 season, Director of Intercollegiate Athletics Robert E. Mulcahy III has announced.
'Coach Stringer's record speaks for itself,' Mulcahy said. 'She has great credibility in the women's basketball world and has run a first-class program. Her selection to the Olympic coaching staff was a perfect reflection of the esteem with which she is held. We are extremely happy to have worked out this extension, and we look forward to great success with our women's program in the years to come.'
'I am very happy that we were able to work out this contract extension to keep me here at Rutgers University,' stated Stringer. 'I am looking forward to many more years of success with the Scarlet Knights. I see nothing but great things on the horizon for our program in the years to come.'
Stringer has posted a 695-239 (.744) mark in her 32 seasons as a head coach and a 175-104 (.627) mark in her nine campaigns at Rutgers. She currently sits fourth on the all-time victories chart in women's college basketball history, needing just five to become the fourth member of the 700-victory club and 14 to move into third place in all-time wins. A member of the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame, the three-time national coach of the year remains the only coach, men's or women's, to lead three different schools to the NCAA Tournament Final Four (Cheyney in 1982, Iowa in 1993 and Rutgers in 2000). Stringer has led her charges to appearances in 17 of the 23 NCAA Tournaments contested, advancing six times to the Regional Final (1982, 1987, 1988, 1993, 1999, 2000), three times to the Final Four (1982, 1993, 2000) and once to the national championship game (1982).
This past summer, Stringer served as an assistant coach for the gold-medal U.S. Olympic women's basketball team, her sixth experience as a coach for the USA Basketball program. A recipient of the Black Coaches Association's Lifetime Achievement Award, she has led Rutgers to six NCAA Tournaments in her nine seasons, advancing to the Sweet Sixteen in 1998, the Elite Eight in 1999 and the Final Four in 2000. The Scarlet Knights, whose BIG EAST Conference membership coincided with Stringer's first season at RU (1995-96), have advanced to the BIG EAST Championship title game three times during her tenure (1998, 2000, 2004), won the regular-season BIG EAST 7 Division crown in 1998 and shared the BIG EAST's regular-season title in 1999.
Last season, in one of her more remarkable coaching efforts in recent history, she led an injury-decimated team to a 21-12 overall record and a 10-6 mark in BIG EAST Conference play. The Scarlet Knights were the runners-up at the BIG EAST Championship and earned a berth in the NCAA Championship, this despite having only seven scholarship players available for the conference title game.
Stringer has been named the National Coach of the Year three times (Wade Trophy -- 1982, Converse -- 1988 and Naismith -- 1993), and was named the 1993 Coach of the Year by Sports Illustrated, USA Today, Converse, the Los Angeles Times and the Black Coaches Association; the 2000 Female Coach of the Year by the Rainbow/PUSH Organization, a group founded by Rev. Jesse Jackson; the District V Coach of the Year in 1985, 1988 and 1993; the District I Coach of the Year in 1998; the Big Ten Coach of the Year in 1991 and 1993; the BIG EAST Coach of the Year in 1998; and the 1998, 1999 and 2000 Metropolitan Basketball Writers Association and New Jersey Basketball Coaches Association Coach of the Year. One of her most personally-gratifying accolades is the 1993 Carol Eckman Award, which acknowledges the coach demonstrating spirit, courage, integrity, commitment, leadership and service to the game of women's basketball.
A finalist for the Naismith National Coach-of-the-Year Award four times during her tenure "On the Banks," Stringer was honored by the U.S. Sports Academy when the organization decided to name its annual women's coaching award in her honor. The C. Vivian Stringer Medallion Award of Sport for Women's Coaching was handed out for the first time in July of 2002. In 2003, she was recognized by Sports Illustrated as one of the "101 Most Influential Minorities in Sports.'
The 2004-2005 Scarlet Knights, already recognized as a team to watch nationally by Sports Illustrated and Slam Magazine in the groups' Preseason Top 10 Polls, will begin the season Saturday, Nov. 20, at home against Rider.
