PISCATAWAY, N.J. — For C. Vivian Stringer, it was all about taking care of business as she stoically walked onto the floor of the Rutgers Athletic Center for the Scarlet Knights’ game Tuesday night against Central Connecticut.
For the fans, ex-players and former staffers in the stands wearing C. Vivian Stringer T-shirts, bearing handmade signs and carrying bigger-than-life pictures of the Rutgers coach, it was all about being a witness to history.
In the days leading up to the game, Stringer said she wanted, simply, to get the milestone win over with, as she was worried about the pressures on her players. The Scarlet Knights made sure that nobody had to sweat on the way to Stringer’s 1,000th win as they easily handled the visiting Blue Devils 73-44.
Red-and-white confetti filled the Rutgers Athletic Center as the final horn sounded and Kool & The Gang’s “Celebration” blared from the arena’s speakers.
Stringer, covered in the small bits of paper, was mobbed by reporters at center court as fans held up CVS1K signs and began chanting “CVS, CVS …”
In notching her 1,000th victory, Stringer joined an exclusive club of Division I women’s college basketball coaches that includes the late Pat Summitt (Tennessee), Tara VanDerveer (Stanford), Geno Auriemma (Connecticut) and Sylvia Hatchell (North Carolina). Barbara Stevens also did it at Division II Bentley.
Only Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski has reached 1,000 wins on the men’s side.
The supporters who showed up at the Rutgers Athletic Center to see Stringer become the first African-American college coach to reach 1,000 wins included New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy and dozens of former player and staffers who have remained closely connected to the Hall of Fame coach over the course of her 47-year career.
Even South Carolina coach Dawn Staley, who once was recruited by Stringer, flew up for the game, bringing her entire coaching staff.
Stringer has been a winner at every stop on an incredible coaching journey.
At tiny Cheyney State, she won 251 games in 12 seasons, leading the nation’s very first historically black college to the championship game of the very first NCAA Division I women’s basketball tournament in 1982.
At Iowa, Stringer won 269 games in 12 seasons, leading the Hawkeyes to eight NCAA tournament appearances and one trip to the Final Four.
With Tuesday’s triumph, Stringer now has 480 wins in her 18 years at Rutgers, a school she has led to 14 NCAA tournament appearances and two trips to the Final Four.
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