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Rutgers WBB coach Vivian Stringer reaches incredible milestone

Dustin Schutte

By Dustin Schutte

Published:

We’re going to take a step away from the football field for a few minutes and step onto the hardwood. On Tuesday night, Rutgers women’s basketball coach Vivian Stringer reached an incredible milestone.

The Scarlet Knights posted a 73-44 win over Central Connecticut State on Tuesday night, marking the 1,000th career victory for Stringer. She became the fifth Division I women’s basketball coach to reach that mark.

Stringer joined Pat Summitt, Geno Auriemma, Tara VanDerveer and Sylvia Hatchell in the 1,000-win club. She is the first African-American coach to win that many games.

Stringer is in her 36th year as a Division I head coach and 47th year overall. She’s spent the last 24 years at Rutgers.

Since taking over in Piscataway in 1995, Stringer has compiled a 480-267 record and has taken her team to 15 NCAA tournaments. Prior to coaching the Scarlet Knights, Stringer was the head coach at Iowa from 1983-1995. While with the Hawkeyes, she racked up a 269-84 record with nine NCAA tournament appearances.

Prior to taking over Division I programs, Stringer coached at Cheyney University. There, she had an incredible 251-51 mark.

Among the laundry list of accomplishments, Stringer was the 1993 Naismith College Coach of the Year, she’s a two-time B1G Coach of the year, two-time Big East Coach of the Year and has taken her teams to four Final Fours.

Stringer will have a chance to improve on her win total on Friday night when Rutgers plays Charlotte.

Dustin Schutte

Dustin grew up in the heart of Big Ten country and has been in sports media since 2010. He has been covering Big Ten football since 2014. You can follow him on Twitter: @SchutteCFB