Tara VanDerveer became the most winning women’s college basketball coach on December 15, 2020 with her 1,099th victory, passing the late Pat Summitt as No. 1, when Stanford University defeated the University of the Pacific 104-61. VanDerveer has established herself as one of the top coaches in the history of collegiate and international women’s basketball and has been inducted into both the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame (2011) and the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame (2002). She is a four-time national coach of the year (1988, 1989, 1990, 2011) and a 15-time Pac-12 coach of the year. Prior to coming to Stanford, she served as head coach for a combined seven seasons at the University of Idaho (1978-80) and The Ohio State University (1980-85). VanDerveer has a 1,094-253 (.812) record in her 41 years as a collegiate head coach and a 942-202 (.823) record over 34 seasons at Stanford. VanDerveer is a 1975 graduate of Indiana University, where she was a dean’s list scholar for three years and a sociology major. While at Indiana, VanDerveer held one of the starting guard positions for three years on the women’s basketball team. After leaving the Hoosiers, VanDerveer was inducted into the Indiana University Hall of Fame in 1995. She has led her Stanford teams to two NCAA championships (1990, 1992), 12 NCAA Final Four appearances, 22 Pac-12 regular-season titles, 13 Pac-12 Tournament crowns and 31 trips to the NCAA Tournament. VanDerveer also guided Idaho to one AIAW Tournament appearance and Ohio State to a pair of NCAA Tournaments while twice being named Big Ten Coach of the Year.
