From taking Cheyney to their first ever final four …to being named the first Black woman’s coach at the University of Iowa and ending her tenure at Rutgers University,
C. Vivian Stringer’s journey is truly a story of legends.
And along the way, she impacted hundreds if not thousands of young women, all this while enduring her own personal challenges.
Coach Stringer won 1,055 games and is one of six Division I head coaches in men’s or women’s basketball to win 1,000 games.
In any other industry, she is heralded as a monumental figure.

But first, the backstory:
The Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) was founded in 1971 and discontinued after the NCAA began sponsoring a women’s collegiate basketball tournament in 1982. (In 1982, both the AIAW and NCAA sponsored competing tournaments.) The AIAW tournament was preceded by a tournament sponsored by the Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (CIAW), which was held from 1969 to 1971.
The 1982 NCAA Division II Women’s Basketball Tournament was the inaugural tournament hosted by the NCAA to determine the team national champion of women’s collegiate basketball among its Division II membership in the United States.
Cal Poly Pomona defeated Tuskegee in the championship game, 93–74, to claim the first-ever Division II national title.
There were two other Black college programs that entered the national tournament before the Lady Wolves. In 1975, The University of District of Columbia was an eight seed and Division II Talladega was the runnerup to Phillips College.
But back to Cheyney State.
When CU hired Charlene Vivian Stringer as a teacher, they had no idea the path they would take. In fact Cheyney became the first and only college to hire two future Hall of Fame coaches when John Chaney joined their coaching ranks.
Chaney made his impact when he led the men’s team to the 1978 NCAA Division II Men’s Basketball Tournament.
The women’s team was not as well-respected until Stringer put together several winning seasons which culminated in the Lady Wolves Cinderalla run to the 1982 women’s finals.
On the way to the finals, they became only Historically Black College and University to win a women’s or men’s NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) Division I Basketball Conference/Regional Championship.
The ’82 run began with a Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Tournament on Feb. 27, 1982, by overwhelming Millersville State College 114-37 and Slippery Rock State College 92-33.
By the time the national tournament began, the Lady Wolves had climbed to No. 2 in the country, behind the Stringer-led frenetic pace they played at on both ends of the court. Led by two-time All-American forward Valerie Walker, and despite two end of the season lossses to Rutgers and ODU, they were set to enter the first-ever women’s NCAA tournament (what turned out to be the final AIAW tournament).
The team cruised past Auburn in its NCAA opener, then won its second-round matchup over North Carolina State by 13 points. The Lady Wolves dominated Kansas State by 22 points in the Elite Eight and advanced to the Final Four.
They stretched their win streak to 23 games with a 76-66 victory  over Maryland which set the stage against the no. 1 team in the country, Louisiana Tech (35-1). They fell short, 76-62, but it was a magnificent accomplishment considering the odds. In the end, they had a season for the ages, never to be forgotten.