Rutgers women’s basketball coach C. Vivian Stringer became the third women’s coach to win 800 games when the Scarlet Knights beat DePaul, 60-46 on February 27.

The crowd at the Louis Brown Athletic Center chanted “CVS” as the clock’s final seconds wound down, and senior Essence Carson made sure the game ball got to her coach.

“I just appreciate that I have the opportunity to do something that few people can do; and that is to work with young people and affect their lives and to feel success every day when you see them do anything,” Stringer said. “I’m really, really blessed. I’ve been blessed with great players and coaches, not only from the players that are here, but the players over the years. I thank you from the bottom of my heart. I’ve been the most fortunate person in the world, because every day I wake up, and I’m so excited to coach basketball.

Stringer joins Tennessee coach Pat Summitt and former Texas coach Jody Conradt in the 800-plus club. She has made a career of building programs into champions, taking three different schools to a Final Four over her 37-year career: Cheyney, Iowa and Rutgers. Rutgers, with two Final Four trips in the last 12 years, lost the championship game to Tennessee in 2007.

When she started at Cheyney, Stringer was a teacher who also coached women’s basketball. She was paid for her teaching services, but not to coach the team. After the Wolves went to the Final Four, Iowa came calling, but Stringer said she was reluctant to accept a job that would pay her to coach.

“I was afraid to go to Iowa because I thought there was something wrong about being paid to do something you really liked,” she said. “You become a teacher not to get rich but to help young people. If you understand that, you also understand that to coach and get paid for it seems like cheating.”

While at Iowa, Stringer won six Big Ten titles and earned nine invitations to the NCAA championship tournament (including the Final Four berth in 1993). She is the Hawkeyes’ all-time winningest coach.

In 1995 she began rebuilding the Rutgers program, and three years later the team earned its first 20-win season and the Big East Conference title, beginning a legacy that includes nine appearances in the NCAA tournament in the last ten years and four regional final games.

In 2007, Stringer was named one of the most influential educators in sports, and in 2003, Sports Illustrated named her one of the 101 most influential minorities in sports. She has collected numerous coach of the year awards and in 2001 was inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame. She was part of the coaching staff for the 2004 gold-medal-winning Olympic team and coached the 1984 Olympic team to a silver medal.