Rutgers names court docket after former coach C. Vivian Stringer

PISCATAWAY, N.J. — Rutgers devoted its court docket to former coach C. Vivian Stringer on Sunday earlier than the staff’s recreation towards No. 4 Ohio State.

The 74-year-old gained 1,055 video games in her 50-year Corridor of Fame profession earlier than retiring after final season. She was at Rutgers from 1995-2022 after stints at Cheyney State and Iowa.

“I used to be surprised once I noticed that, I nonetheless cannot imagine that,” an emotional Stringer mentioned of seeing her identify on the court docket.

There have solely been a handful of faculties to call their courts after girls’s basketball coaches, together with Tennessee for Pat Summitt, N.C. State for Kay Yow, Arkansas-Little Rock for Joe Foley and DePaul for Doug Bruno.

Stringer was fourth all time amongst Division I girls’s basketball coaches in wins behind Tara VanDerveer, Geno Auriemma and Summitt.

Stringer made 4 Remaining 4 appearances and reached the NCAA Match 28 occasions. She was the primary coach in males’s or girls’s basketball to take three completely different groups to the nationwide semifinals.

She led the Scarlet Knights to 2 Remaining Fours and three Huge East regular-season titles. Stringer was on go away final 12 months due to COVID-19 considerations.

Stringer was in attendance and at halftime her household and plenty of former gamers gathered on the court docket to have fun the dedication of it to her.

Rutgers gave Stringer a chunk of the ground that her groups performed on as a present.

“I feel my staff all the time know that once I’m overwhelmed I simply cry,” she mentioned to an adoring crowd at halftime. “I really like you all.”

Stringer gained 20 or extra video games 37 occasions in her profession, ending with a 1,055-426 document (.712 profitable share). She was inducted into the Girls’s Basketball Corridor of Fame in 2001 and enshrined within the Naismith Memorial Basketball Corridor of Fame in 2009. Stringer additionally served as an assistant coach on the 2004 U.S. Olympic staff that gained a gold medal.

All through the sport Rutgers performed video tributes to Stringer, together with from South Carolina coach Daybreak Staley, Stanford’s VanDerveer and former participant Essence Carson.