LOCK HAVEN, Pa. – Slippery Rock University graduate and current Rutgers University Head Women's Basketball Coach C. Vivian Stringer was one of five individuals recently selected to receive a Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Award of Merit, the conference office announced Wednesday.
Stringer, a student-athlete at The Rock and later head women's coach at PSAC-member Cheyney University, was joined on this year's list of Award of Merit recipients by John Chaney, who served as head men's basketball coach at Cheyney while Stringer was the women's coach there and later coached at Temple University in Philadelphia.
Other 2012 Award of Merit recipients included former Clarion University wrestler Wade Schalles, former Bloomsburg University field hockey and softball coach and East Stroudsburg University graduate Jan Hutchinson and West Chester University graduate Cathy Rush, the former women's basketball coach at Immaculata College.
The PSAC Award of Merit is the conference's highest honor. Awarded to individuals with a current or previous affiliation with a league school, either as an alumnus, coach or administrator, it is given for outstanding and extraordinary accomplishments or services that bring exceptional recognition and honor to the conference.
Stringer has built an illustrious career highlighted by countless milestones, including her enshrinement into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2009, when she became one of only 11 women's coaches to be inducted.
Currently in her 41st season as a collegiate head coach and owner of an 880-313 career record, Stringer was the primary architect in transforming three programs into national title contenders. She was the first coach in men's or women's basketball history to take three different schools to the Final Four.
Stringer ranks third on the NCAA Division I women's basketball career victories list and second among active coaches. In 2008, she became just the eighth coach, men's or women's, to reach the 800-win mark and her 31, 20-win seasons are second-best in women's basketball history.
Stringer has led her three teams to 24 appearances in the NCAA Tournament, including nine trips to the regional final and also made her sixth appearance on a USA Basketball coaching staff in 2004, serving as an assistant coach for the gold-medal winning U.S. Olympic Team.
Named one of the “101 Most Influential Minorities in Sports” by Sports Illustrated in 2003, Stringer continues to be one of the most recognized coaches in the game.
Stringer began her coaching career at Cheyney, where she led the Lady Wolves to a 251-51 record in 12 seasons, highlighted by an appearance in the first-ever NCAA women's basketball national championship game.
In 1983, she left Cheyney to become head coach at the University of Iowa, where she achieved similar success. She led the Lady Hawkeyes to a 269-84 record in 12 seasons, capped off by an appearance in the 1993 Final Four.
Stringer has compiled a 343-194 record in 17 seasons at Rutgers. Her 2000 and 2007 teams both earned berths in the Final Four. Stringer's 2011-12 squad currently owns a 17-4 overall record and is ranked 13th in the Associated Press Division I national poll and 14th in the USA Today ESPN poll.
Stringer has received numerous awards, capped off by three National Coach of the Year honors, but one of her most personally-gratifying accolades was receiving 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 seven times, Stringer was humbled when the U.S. Sports Academy 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.
Stringer has also been inducted into numerous Halls of Fame, including her induction in 1984 as a charter member of the SRU Athletic Hall of Fame. Among her other Hall of Fame honors are a 2001 induction into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame, both the New Jersey Sports Hall of Fame and the Sport in?Society Hall of Fame in 2005, and both the University of Iowa Athletics Hall of Fame and International Women's Sports Hall of Fame in 2006.
One of the most memorable events and honors in Stringer's life took place in September 2008 when Nike named its second child development center after her. The 35,000 square foot facility, houses 26 classrooms which provide care, learning and development for nearly 300 children between the ages of six months and five years old.
Stringer serves on the Board of Directors of the Kay Yow/WBCA Cancer Fund, created in the fall of 2007. The Foundation, in partnership with the V Foundation for Cancer Research, is an initiative to fight breast cancer.
A native of Edenborn, Pa., and a member of the Alumni Hall of Fame at her alma mater, Slippery Rock University, Stringer and the late William D. Stringer have three children — David, Janine and Justin. Stringer became a first-time grandmother in June 2009 with the addition of granddaughter, Dayton.
Notes:
The addition of this year's five-person group increased to nine the number of individuals who have received a PSAC Award of Merit and the first since 2002. Current Edinboro University athletic director Bruce Baumgartner and current Shippensburg University head cross country and assistant track & field coach Steve Spence were the inaugural recipients in 1992.
Baumgartner, who was then a wrestling coach at Edinboro, was a three-time Olympic medalist at the time of his award after winning his second gold medal at the 1992 Barcelona Games. He would later win his fourth Olympic medal at the 1996 Atlanta Games after being chosen to carry the American flag at the opening ceremonies of those games.
Spence, a 1985 graduate of Shippensburg, was a volunteer coach at Shippensburg at the time of his award. After winning the bronze medal at the 1991 World Track & Field Championships and winning the marathon at the 1992 U.S. Olympic Trials, he finished 12th in the marathon at the 1992 Barcelona Games.
In 1997, former Clarion wrestler Kurt Angle, a former NCAA wrestling champion and 1996 Olympic gold medalist, became the third recipient of the Award of Merit.
In 2002, the late Chuck Daly became the fourth recipient of the Award of Merit. Daly, a 1952 graduate of Bloomsburg, is perhaps best known for being the head coach of the 1992 U.S. men's basketball Olympic “Dream Team.” He also compiled a record of 519-342 as an NBA coach, primarily with the Detroit Pistons from 1983-92, He was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2001, entering in the same class at Chaney. ?
