Vivian Stringer is the head coach of the Rutger’s women’s basketball team,\u00a0so\u00a0many of you may have heard her name in the wake of Don Imus’s racist and sexist comments.\u00a0\u00a0However,\u00a0her story and her influence as a pioneering woman extends well beyond the Imus controversy.\u00a0\u00a0She has an amazing biography, and she is undoubtably a pioneering African American woman.\u00a0 Her influence\u00a0as a role model extends well beyond her coaching background, as revealed in the press surrounding the book:<\/p>\n
\u00a0A gifted athlete, she had to fight for a place on an all-white cheerleading squad in the sixties. In 1981, just as her coaching career was taking off, her fourteen-month-old daughter, Nina, was stricken with spinal meningitis. Nina would never walk or talk again. Still grieving, Stringer brought a small, poor, historically black college to the national championships\u2014a triumph hailed as \u201cHoosiers with an all-female cast.\u201d In 1991, her husband, Bill\u2014her staunchest supporter, the father of her children, and the love of her life\u2014fell dead of a sudden heartattack, but that same year, she led yet another young team to the Final Four. Through these dark times and others\u2014including her bout with cancer, shared here for the first time\u2014Stringer has carried her burdens with grace. Given her history, it was no surprise that she led her team to respond to Don Imus\u2019s slurs with dignity and courage.<\/p>\n
Standing Tall<\/em> is a story of quiet strength in the face of punishing odds. Above all, it is an extraordinary love story\u2014love for the game, for the players she has coached, for her close-knit family, and for the husband she lost far too soon. It will resonate long after the last page.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Stringer releases her autobiography today and I encourage everyone to check it out.<\/a>\u00a0 It’s often that I\u00a0put up stories about the mistreatment of black women in the US,\u00a0so it is nice to have an occasion to celebrate some one who helps challenge those images of black women.<\/p>\n
Update:<\/strong> Here is an interview I heard with her today.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Vivian Stringer is the head coach of the Rutger’s women’s basketball team,\u00a0so\u00a0many of you may have heard her name in the wake of Don Imus’s racist and sexist comments.\u00a0\u00a0However,\u00a0her story and her influence as a pioneering woman extends well beyond … Continue reading