PHILADELPHIA (April 13, 2010) – For C. Vivian Stringer, coaching collegiate women’s basketball is more than drawing up plays and setting defensive matchups. It is about instilling life lessons to her players and overcoming unforeseen challenges along the way.

On April 21, Stringer will share some of those lessons along with stories of perseverance at Saint Joseph’s University when she delivers a lecture titled “Standing Tall, Breaking Barriers.” The lecture will follow her journey in women’s basketball and the challenges and adversities she has overcome along the way.  It will be part of the Diversity Lecture Series sponsored by the University’s Office of Multicultural Life.

A coal miner’s daughter and native of Edenborn, Pa., Stringer has been breaking barriers and setting records on and off the court for 40 years as a head coach. Over the years, Stringer has amassed a .714 winning percentage to go with her 843 wins, third-most all-time among women’s college basketball coaches. She is a three-time national coach of the year, and is the first coach, male or female, to take three different schools to the Final Four (Cheyney State, The University of Iowa and Rutgers University). In 2009, Stringer was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass.

In addition to her success on the court, Stringer has been recognized for her impact off of it. She was named one of the 101 Most Influential Minorities in Sports by Sports Illustrated in 2003, and one of the 100 Most Influential Sports Educators in America in 2007. Stringer and her Rutgers team gained national attention in 2007 for their grace and poise in dealing with disparaging on-air comments made by shock jock Don Imus. In 2008, she published her autobiography “Standing Tall: A Memoir of Tragedy and Triumph.”

Stringer will speak Wednesday, April 21, from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m., in The Perch, located in Simpson Hall (campus map – http://www.sju.edu/about/campusmap/index.html). The lecture is free and open to the public.