Product Description

“Lots of people have dreams, but C. Vivian Stringer is the dream—a coalminer’s daughter who believed when her Poppa told her there was no obstacle she could not surmount. And she lives that dream, teaching others to rise up to meet challenges, turning underdogs into champions again and again—on and off the court. This is the quintessential American story, of a woman and of a family pulling together against the odds. Standing Tall offers an important message of hope to so many.”
—John Chaney, Hall of Fame college basketball coach


At a time when heroes are too rare, C. Vivian Stringer sets a shining example. She has time and again shown character, fortitude, and heart, both on and off the hardwood, and in the face of unbearable loss. In Standing Tall, she shares her remarkable life story, inspiring us to find this fortitude within ourselves.

“Work hard, and don’t look for excuses,” Stringer’s parents told her, “and you can achieve anything.” But her faith and perseverance would be tested many times. A 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—a triumph hailed as “Hoosiers with an all-female cast.” In 1991, her husband, Bill—her staunchest supporter, the father of her children, and the love of her life—fell dead of a sudden heart attack, but that same year, she led yet another young team to the Final Four. Through these dark times and others—including her bout with cancer, shared here for the first time—Stringer has carried her burdens with grace. Given her history, it was no surprise that she led her team to respond to Don Imus’s slurs with dignity and courage.

Standing Tall is a story of quiet strength in the face of punishing odds. Above all, it is an extraordinary love story—love 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.


From the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #67853 in Books
• Published on: 2009-03-03
• Released on: 2009-03-03
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 304 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780307406279
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Move over, Horatio Alger. Stringer's inspiring story of rising to the top through hard work and the love of a close-knit family is one of the strongest sports memoirs in recent years. The oldest child in a large family that stressed education, teamwork and dignity, Stringer manifested all those values in nearly four decades as a basketball coach. As the first coach in NCAA women's history to bring three different teams to the Final Four, Stringer has loads of fantastic stories to share, particularly the turnaround that resulted in the 2006–2007 Rutgers women moving from the bottom of their division to the top, winning the nation's respect even before their dignified response to Don Imus's slurs. This memoir is also about winning off the court, as Stringer describes the heartrending trials that have tested her endurance and faith: a major crisis with each of her three children; the sudden death of her beloved husband in 1991; and her own quiet struggle with cancer, discussed openly here for the first time. Karen Chilton's performance is strong and memorable, and Stringer herself reads the introduction.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Stringer is the head coach of the women’s basketball team at Rutgers University—the team that radio-host Don Imus, in a mean-spirited attempt at humor, disparaged with a crude, racist remark, setting off a national firestorm. It’s to Stringer’s credit that the Imus incident takes only a few pages at the end of the book. This is a memoir of a coaching career and a life in which a lout with a microphone is merely a bump in the road. Stringer recounts her childhood in a small Pennsylvania mining town with five siblings and parents who prepared their children for success with love and discipline. After beginning as an unpaid volunteer coach at tiny Cheyney State, Stringer went on to revive a dormant program at Iowa before moving to Rutgers. Along the way, she recounts the personal tragedies that have paralleled her professional success: an infant daughter who contracted spinal meningitis; a husband who died at 44; her own bout with breast cancer. This is an emotional roller coaster of a memoir, but it is told with humor, passion, and gratitude. An inspiring life story—and certain to get plenty of attention. --Wes Lukowsky

Review
“If you want to be introduced to the demands and delights of basketball, I am sure this book will satisfy you. If you want a book to speak eloquently about finding and losing a great love, about proud parenthood and passionate competition, rush to get this book. Simply put, it is a wonderful book about the wonder of growing up African American, female, ambitious, and successful. I laughed and cried with this book and was pleased. You go girl!”
—Maya Angelou

“Coach Vivian Stringer is a pillar of strength who always stands tall. I’m inspired by her, both on and off the court, and you will be too.”
—President Bill Clinton

 “The people who most inspired me in the civil rights movement–from Martin Luther King Jr. to Sidney Poitier and Harry Belafonte–were each protégés of the scholar, artist, athlete, and civil rights activist Paul Robeson and I have long believed that C. Vivian Stringer continues in the proud tradition of this inspiring leader. In Standing Tall, C. Vivian Stringer confirms beyond any doubt that she does indeed stand tall in the tradition of Robeson and King, and I am certain that readers will not simply be moved by her story, but that their lives will be touched and changed for the better for reading it.”
—Andrew Young

 “What a story! In a way that touches me very personally, I see in Coach Stringer a mother’s love–and I know that love is the kind of leadership that can change the world.”
—Michael Jordan
 
"In a time of darkness, C. Vivian Stringer stepped forward and led her team–and then the nation. Our country got to see what Coach Stringer's players have seen for more than thirty years: a model of grace and strength for a generation of young women. She has been an inspiration and a role model for me in coaching and now <...

Customer Reviews

An inspiring life
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.

Outstanding in basketball and memoir genres
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.

Good Read, Great Coach
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.