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• Bio on Ms. Stringer
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Tavis: C. Vivian Stringer is the only college basketball coach, male or female--let me be clear about this--to take three different teams to the Final Four. Most recently in 2000 with her current school, Rutgers. But basketball is only part of Coach Stringer's story. She is a teacher, a mentor, a role model for scores of young women and is now the subject of a terrific documentary called "This is a Game, Ladies." The film premieres December 15th here on PBS. Here now, a scene from "This is a Game, Ladies."

C. Vivian Stringer: We are here, and it's gotta be a statement when you come out. Our defense is the best defense in this world, period. And we will signify that right now, right today, in the city of brotherly love. Make the people question what the crap is going on. We are the greatest team that there ever is. Tennessee is done. Checkmate.

Tavis: Coach Stringer joins us from Princeton, New Jersey. Coach, watching that clip, didn't sound like that was a game. You were taking that real seriously, it sounds like.

C. Vivian Stringer: Of course, you're playing in the Final Four, it's very definitely a lot more serious.

Tavis: Yeah. Nice to have you on the program, first of all. Glad to have you here.

Stringer: Thank you, Tavis.

Tavis: Let me start by asking you what I always wanted to know. C. Vivian Stringer. C. Vivian Stringer. Now, since we call you Coach Stringer, I assume that the "C" doesn't stand for coach. So what does the "C" in C. Vivian Stringer stand for?

Stringer: "C" actually stands for Charlene.

Tavis: Charlene.

Stringer: I think my parents probably wanted me to be a Charles.

Tavis: But you came out a Charlene. But I can't imagine they wouldn't be proud of all that you've accomplished now.

Stringer: There's no question about that. They've been involved right from the beginning and very supportive of anything that I've done in athletics or in music.

Tavis: What has been the greatest challenge over all of these years, being not just an African-American coach, but an African-American female coach at that?

Stringer: I think the greatest challenge is to have an opportunity to work with each young lady between the ages of 18 and 22 and to help her to have a sense of fulfillment and not worrying about where, at what point she might start, but to make sure that she's all of what she can possibly be. It's different for each person.

Tavis: Yeah. I suspect that it probably is different for each person. Let me ask whether or not, though, over the years, these 33 years now that you've been coaching--did I make you blush there when I said 33 years?

Stringer: Wow. It's incredible.

Tavis: I saw your eyes roll back in your head when I said 33 years. But you have been doing this for 33 years just in case you didn't know. I counted. It's been 33 years.

Stringer: It's been 33 great years, though. I really don't think of it, you know, in that respect. I feel like I could go for another 33, to tell you the truth.

Tavis: Yeah. Let me ask you, back to what I was about to say, whether or not, while I do respect the fact that every individual woman that you coach and worked with over the years is clearly an individual and are different, have you noticed a pattern, though, in how different the women you coach today are from the women you started out coaching 33 years ago?

Stringer: Oh, yeah. There are a lot of influences, I think, that--one, the kind of emphasis that is being placed on the female athlete. I don't think that parents were nearly as involved in the skill development or the organized sport, and as a result, I think that the players of yesterday, if you will, appreciated an opportunity to just play basketball. They believed anything you said, did all of what they needed to do, and they worked very hard and understood that the opportunity to play basketball was for excitement, for fulfillment, but they didn't really think of basketball as taking them any further than to just get an education. On the other hand, today there are a lot more influences, whether it's, you know, the fact that that athlete has a scholarship or an opportunity to play professionally, and there are a lot of different influences, and as a result, I think that there are also a lot of distractions. And yet, with the kind of publicity that women athletes now enjoy, there's every reason for a female athlete to be good and to work hard and to feel that she's going to be appreciated.

Tavis: I assume, and I guess I shouldn't, but let me suggest to you that I assume anyway in advance of your answer, that all things considered, it is a good thing that women's sports has evolved, is evolving in the way that it is, all things considered. You'd agree with that?

Stringer: There's no question about that. I think that too often people think that the scholarship is an opportunity, say, for a female athlete to play professionally. While that might be one of the options if she's good enough, certainly Title Nine has given every female an opportunity to get an education and certainly in getting a scholarship, these women are lawyers, doctors, teachers, psychologists, and the like, and so there's no question that parents now see that the opportunity to receive a scholarship is allowing their daughter to get an education and to be fulfilled in their later years.

Tavis: Let me ask you your honest--not that you haven't been honest already--but your honest and very real assessment of whether or not what we have today as the university sees these young women, do they see them as student athletes or athlete students?

Stringer: No, there's no question about it. It's very definitely student athletes. And you have to remember that the academic integrity of a university comes into question any time an athlete takes the floor. So it's her responsibility or his responsibility to represent that university as an academic institution first. And of course, everyone would like to win, and we all work hard to win, certainly. We're coaches. But to be proud and to represent our university, you know, in the academic sense is most important, because you can believe that your university presidents, former alumni, that's what's going to stick uppermost in their mind, and so there's no question that it's student athletes. When you walk into a professor's classroom and you're talking about I play basketball, they don't want to hear it.

Tavis: Obviously, coaching is what you do and you do it awfully well. You're on the verge now of 700 victories. That makes you feel pretty good, I would assume.

Stringer: Well, you know what? I'm grateful to have an opportunity to have coached so many years and so many outstanding young people. And when I think of that number, all I can see is the many faces of the players who over the years have just grown and developed, you know, and been fulfilled, and so it doesn't seem like 700. 700 seems like an awesome number.

Tavis: Yeah. It is.

Stringer: I'm just glad to be a part of it.

Tavis: As I mentioned, you coach and you coach awfully well, but what was it like to essentially have a camera in your face following you and your team around for all these many days and games to produce this PBS documentary?

Stringer: Let me say that it was very stressful, you know. There were so many times that conversations or interactions were somewhat guarded and we got a little used to it, because as you can tell through the documentary, the people who were doing that video actually were in some pretty intimate situations, and probably the experience that they had is something most people don't see, and that is internally what's happen within a program. A lot of people see the game or they see the players walk out on the floor but have no idea of what it's taken, and the people that are involved in the lives that are intertwined with so many various aspects of the game.

Tavis: In just a few seconds here, what do you think that viewers can learn from what we're going to see on December 15 at 9:00 P.M. when this piece airs?

Stringer: You know, what I hope they learn is that we will all start with dreams and ambitions and there's a price to be paid. And that, you know, sometimes you're going to come up a little short. But the idea is to get yourself up to fight again, to believe in yourself, to know that there are no shortcuts in life, because the relationship, and what we try to teach all the time is, ladies, this is more than a game. The basketball--the game of basketball is really nothing more than reflections of life's lessons. And so if they learn that, and to know that you come up a little short in certain areas and things that you thought you can do, but you go on and find another way to get it done.

Tavis: Very nicely said, very nicely done, as you do all the time on the basketball court. So Coach C. Vivian Stringer, nice to have you on the program. Congratulations on that 700 victory and thanks for coming on the program.

Stringer: Thanks you so much, Tavis, for having me.

Tavis: Nice to have you on. That's our show for tonight. I'll talk to you on NPR. See you back here next time on PBS. Until then, thanks for watching, good night from L.A., and keep the faith.