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Shining Knight
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Published: March 6, 2008
"I'm not just a basketball coach," Rutgers' C. Vivian Stringer writes in her autobiography. "I'm a woman and a mom and a friend. ... And my girls are far more than basketball players."
Stringer, who became the third women's basketball coach to win 800 games when the Scarlet Knights defeated DePaul on Feb. 27, has authored a powerful and very personal story in "Standing Tall: A Memoir of Tragedy and Triumph" (Crown Publishing, $24.95). A gifted athlete in her own right and the product of hard-working parents in southwestern Pennsylvania, Stringer used her relentless work ethic to lead Cheyney State, Iowa and Rutgers to the Final Four.
"You need passion to do the work it takes to succeed," Stringer writes.
You also need strength, faith and courage to overcome the personal obstacles Stringer has faced. She helped break the color barrier on her high school cheerleading squad. A misdiagnosed case of spinal meningitis left Nina, her 14-month-old daughter, in a wheelchair and unable to talk. She lost her husband and college sweetheart, Bill, to a massive heart attack when he was in his mid-40s. Her younger son, Justin, was severely injured in a car accident. And Stringer had to battle breast cancer, a condition she kept secret from her players and family.
"I have been through a lot in my life," Stringer writes, "and if nothing else, it has made me stronger."
"Standing Tall" is a testament to that. Stringer, with an assist from Brooklyn, N.Y.-based author Laura Tucker, tells her story simply and does not seek sympathy. Still, some of the passages will leave the reader misty-eyed. Her basketball stories are compelling and show her passion for the game.
A member of the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame, Stringer writes about mentors like John Chaney, her close-knit family, and spins stories that are amusing and eye-opening (her recruiting trip to visit Lakewood High star Necole Tunsil - and her candor to the player and her parents - is especially revealing).
The racial slurs hurled at the Rutgers squad last year by radio talk host Don Imus allowed Stringer and the Scarlet Knights to showcase their class, grace and dignity on a national level.
"It takes a great deal of confidence to hold your head high after you've been humiliated," Stringer writes.
Confidence is a Stringer trait, and it would not be surprising to see her pacing the sideline in Tampa next month during the Women's Final Four, urging, cajoling and cheering her players.
Winning an NCAA title (her teams lost in the title game twice) would be a crowning achievement, but it would not define Stringer. She already has won in the game of life. "Standing Tall" is living proof.
HARD TO BELIEVE: With all the amazing oddities that Ripley's Believe It or Not! staff has assembled through the years, it's hard to imagine that "Baseball Oddities & Trivia" (Ripley Publishing, $10.88) is the first book by Ripley totally dedicated to baseball curiosities.
Author Tim O'Brien, helped by illustrations from John Graziano, have stuffed more than 350 baseball oddities into a 120-page paperback.
There are a few typos (Yogi Berri? Satchell Paige?) and some misused words (short stop instead of shortstop), but overall, this is a satisfying book. The Ripley fascination with numbers produces some mind-boggling facts (Carlos May is the only major-leaguer to wear his birthdate on the back of his uniform - May 17).
This book is a fun, fascinating read.
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