C. VIVIAN STRINGER

C. Vivian Stringer was born on March 16, 1948 in Edenborn Pennsylvania. A coal miner’s daughter, Stringer's parents impressed upon her that with a strong work ethic she could achieve anything. She graduated from Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania where she was a four sport athlete. She met her late husband William D Stringer in college. They had three children. Stringer was the first men's or women's basketball coach to guide three different programs to the Final Four, bringing national relevancy to each school. She led Cheyney, from 1971 to 1983, to the first NCAA tournament championship game in 1982, when the Wolves fell to Louisiana Tech. At Iowa (1983-1995), she turned the Hawkeyes, who had won just seven games the season prior to her arrival, into a power, propelling them to their first national semifinal game in 1993. She replicated similar levels of success after taking over at Rutgers University in 1995. Rutgers advanced to its first Final Four in 2000 as well as the national title game in 2007, in which it fell to Tennessee. Stringer took the Scarlet Knights to 10 straight NCAA tournaments from 2003 to 2012 while also guiding them to a WNIT title in 2014. Behind her teams' trademark gritty defense, her 37 20-win seasons, the last of which she secured in 2019-20, are the most in NCAA history. She retired in 2022 after 50 years and 1,055 wins as a head coach. Stringer was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2009.

"Success is not measured in wins or Iosses. It's measured by where you were, where you've come from, and where you are now."