Stanford University women's basketball coach and gender-rights advocate Tara VanDerveer became the college-basketball coach with the most wins ever on Jan. 21, media outlets reported.
After her team defeated Oregon State 65-56, VanDerveer has 1,203 career victories after surpassing legendary Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski's record of 1,202.
According to the university website, VanDerveer has led her Stanford teams to three NCAA championships (1990, 1992, 2021), and she is one of four coaches in the history of the sport to win three titles. She's advanced the Cardinal to 14 NCAA Final Four appearances, 25 Pac-12 regular-season titles, 15 Pac-12 tournament crowns and 34 trips to the NCAA Tournament. She also led Idaho to one AIAW Tournament appearance and The Ohio State University to a pair of NCAA Tournaments while twice being named Big Ten Coach of the Year.
In addition, her teams have won 20 or more games 38 times (an NCAA college basketball record), including each of the last 22 seasons.
In 1995-96, VanDerveer led the USA Basketball National Team, guiding the team to a 52-0 exhibition record and then to the Olympic gold medal with a perfect 8-0 run at the 1996 Atlanta Games.
Over her career, she became a leader in Title IX issues and gender equality, calling out the NCAA for "blatant sexism" after the weight-room disparities at the 2021 NCAA tournament, Yahoo! News noted. In 2019, she spoke out about California's SB 206, which will allow college athletes to profit off their likenesses. "I'm just hoping that women won't be left in the dust," VanDerveer said. "There's a lot of disparity between what men and women are paid in sports. There's one woman in the top 100 in terms of income—that's Serena Williams." (Williams has left tennis since this statement was made.)
A Boston native who grew up in upstate New York, VanDerveer graduated from Indiana University in 1975.
—Andrew Davis
