Standing Tall: A Memoir of Tragedy and Triumph

Vivian Stringer has been a part of my life since 1993, when her Iowa Hawkeyes and my Ohio State Buckeyes traded wins and losses against each other on the way to that year's NCAA Final Four. We have never met, but have always considered us family because of what is common in our lives; the coal mines, women athletics, being African American, having extreme amounts of drive, rising to heights in our professional lives, our faith and hope for those we teach. I am a professional musician. As I finish Standing Tall, I hold back the tears swelling up in my soul. But tears are a sign of strength. Thank you, Vivian, for taking the time out of your extremely busy life to collaborate with Laura Tucker and Crown Publishers on this wonderful book. I hope America reads it, lays our souls next to your huge heart and learn what it takes to stand tall and prosper through tragedy and triumph. I look forward to sharing this book with my loved ones.

Am amazing book. Very hard to put down. Coach Stringer shares her life, including stories of her own mistakes, setbacks and bad decisions. She tells us about her happy family and her encounter with racism at high school cheerleader selection. In college, her passion for sports collided with academics and she almost flunked out. And she met a handsome athlete named Bill Stringer. Stringer's adult life combined professional triumph with personal tragedy. One child remains paralyzed from misdiagnosed spinal meningitis...and speechless from complications when the doctors refused to listen to Vivian's pleas: "I know there's something wrong. Please take another MRI." Later her husband died at 47 and Stringer herself was diagnosed with breast cancer. She leaned heavily on family to survive these crises with dignity and strength. As a basketball fan, I especially liked the sections on teams, games and championships. And I would like to have seen more. The most moving scene comes when Stringer describes a New Year's Eve practice when a lackluster team was inspired by Cappie Pondexter, Tammy Sutton Brown and a handful of Coach Stringer's former players. These players had just a few days off for the holidays, yet they came to Rutgers to help their coach and talk to this team from their perspective of "been there." And the team went on to get past the Final Four -- almost all the way to an NCAAW championship. Ultimately, I welcomed the opportunity to get to know more about Vivian Stringer. I've seen her standing tall at Rutgers games, wearing red, unflappable, and yes, every inch the tough coach in a feminine designer suit with good jewelry.

I started following Rutgers Women's basketball just a few years ago and wanted to find out what makes C. Vivian Stringer tick, as well as to catch up on earlier teams that she coached. The book filled that need admirably. The writing is excellent, details informative and the message uplifting. She has a stoic and yet combative view of life and her story explains why. No book will ever reveal what a person is like and if you've ever heard her speak, you know that Coach Stringer has poetry in her that barely peaks through in the book. Her reaction to the recent Tennessee clock debacle included, "I seem to have an eraser after my name..." The perpetual struggle that she is involved in as she coaches and deals with her other challenges and the effect that she has on others is what she is and she is a treasure.

Most of us heard about her from the fall-out of Don Imus' disgusting comments regarding her team; but in her memoir you will learn that the strength of character she showed during those dark days was ingrained in her from her solid family values. Coach Stringer is a woman whose challenges have only served to make her stronger, better, wiser. And those of us who are privildged to know her can only be amazed by her talent, beauty and fortitude. I can honestly say that the C. in C. Vivian Stringer truly does stand for CHAMPION!

As a women's basketball fan I was familiar with C Vivian Stringer and her Rutgers team. What I wasn't familiar with were all the details of her upbringing in a poor but proud family and the struggles she went through as an African American, wife and mother dealing with a high profile career, illness of her daughter, death of her husband and various other unique challenges. Coach Stringer presents all of her struggles in an honest and humble way. I especially enjoyed reading how she developed her coaching style over the years and seeing how she put her values into practice. If you like "overcomer" type stories or sports stories, you'll enjoy this, its the type you can't put down until you finish. I can understand now why her players seem to have so much affection and loyalty for her.