Tara VanDerveer Trivia | 50 facts about the basketball coach

Tara VanDerveer is an American basketball coach who became college basketball’s winningest coach ever of all-time.

Let’s find out some trivia and facts about her life and career.

1. Her full name is Tara Ann VanDerveer
2. She was born June 26, 1953
3. She is an American basketball coach
4. Tara VanDerveer has been the head women’s basketball coach at Stanford University since 1985
5. Designated the Setsuko Ishiyama Director of Women’s Basketball
6. VanDerveer led the Stanford Cardinal to three NCAA Women’s Division I Basketball Championships: in 1990, 1992 and 2021
7. She stepped away from the Stanford program for a year to serve as the U.S. national team head coach at the 1996 Olympic Games
8. VanDerveer is the 1990 Naismith National Coach of the Year
9. And a ten-time Pac-12 Coach of the Year
10. She is also one of only nine NCAA Women’s Basketball coaches to win over 900 games
11. One of ten NCAA Division I coaches – women’s or men’s – to win 1,000 games
12. VanDerveer was inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in 2002
13. On December 15, 2020, she passed Pat Summitt for most wins in women’s college basketball history
14. On January 21, 2024, she became the winningest head coach in college basketball history, women’s or men’s, upon passing Mike Krzyzewski with her 1,203rd win
15. VanDerveer was born on June 26, 1953
16. Her parents were Dunbar and Rita VanDerveer
17. They named their first child “Tara” after the plantation in Gone with the Wind
18. She was born in Melrose, Massachusetts, a part of Greater Boston
19. She grew up in the small community of West Hill, near Schenectady, New York
20. There were no sports teams for girls at her first high school
21. She played a number of sports including basketball, in rec leagues and pickup
22. When she was younger, she played with both boys and girls
23. As she entered her high school years, the girls dropped out for other interests, so she was more apt to play with boys
24. To help make sure she would be chosen, she bought the best basketball she could afford, so if the boys wanted to play with her basketball, they would have to pick her
25. VanDerveer’s family moved to Niagara Falls in her sophomore year of high school
26. Though she had never played basketball at the high-school level, VanDerveer took the game up again after she transferred to Buffalo Seminary, an all-girls college preparatory school, in her junior year
27. She ended up earning a place in the Buffalo Seminary’s Athletic Hall of Fame
28. VanDerveer was determined to play basketball in college
29. Unable to afford tuition at her first choice, Mount Holyoke, she chose to attend Albany where her father had studied for his doctorate
30. The team was not highly competitive, but she knew the coach, which helped with the decision
31. The team turned out not be challenging enough
32. Although naturally a guard, she shifted to the center position, and led the team in many categories, despite being a freshman on the team
33. She decided she needed a bigger challenge so she talked some of her friends into attending the AIAW National Championship
34. There she watched many teams, took notes, and decided where she wanted to go
35. She chose Indiana where she transferred and spent three years, making the Dean’s List each of the three years
36. In her sophomore year, 1973, she helped the team reach the Final Four of the AIAW championship, losing in the semi-finals to Queens College
37. At that time, the men’s basketball team at Indiana was coached by future Hall of Fame coach Bobby Knight
38. The Indiana women’s coach, Bea Gorton, patterned her style of play and practices after Knight
39. And it was the observation of the style of play at the AIAW event that persuaded VanDerveer to choose Indiana
40. VanDerveer enrolled in Knight’s basketball coaching classes at IU and regularly observed his team’s practices
41. VanDerveer carried what she learned from Knight to her practices at Stanford
42. After completing college, VanDerveer took a year off, with a plan to return to law school
43. When she ran out of money she returned home
44. When her parents realized she was doing little beyond playing chess and sleeping, they urged her to help with her sister Marie’s basketball team
45. Her sister was five years younger, and by the time Marie reached high school, the school had basketball teams for girls
46. Though frustrated by the lack of commitment from the girls on her team, VanDerveer discovered a passion for coaching basketball
47. VanDerveer is also an avid piano player
48. Her sister Heidi VanDerveer, who coached for several years with the WNBA’s Minnesota Lynx and Seattle Storm
49. Aas well as Occidental College in Los Angeles
50. She is now the head coach at UC San Diego.[70]