Tara VanDerveer stood center stage at halfcourt donning a jacket with 1,203 tally marks. Golden strips of confetti rained down through the air. Like fireflies, 1,203 red lights beamed around Maples Pavilion.
Though VanDerveer is averse to the limelight, she beamed with pride, having passed Mike Krzyzewski for the most NCAA wins ever for a basketball coach — a record she never chased outright but represents her life’s work. Illuminated posters that read: “Only Her” surrounded the stage. Yet as VanDerveer will remind anyone, it has never been just her.
“Basketball was invented as, always has been and always will be, a team sport,” VanDerveer said after Stanford’s 65-56 win over Oregon State, the record-breaking 1,203rd of her career. “It is never about one person. This is not about me.”
When the 70-year-old was growing up in upstate New York, there were no girls’ teams to play on. Five decades later, the pioneer has won more college basketball games than any man or woman, eclipsing Krzyzewski and helping revolutionize women’s basketball.
She has influenced so many lives that the postgame panel of her former star players slated to last five minutes went half an hour. There were too many stories of love, basketball and life lessons to share.
Early in her coaching career, VanDerveer built a powerhouse at Ohio State, then left for an irrelevant program at Stanford in 1985 that had gone 2-12 in conference play the year before.
In Palo Alto, she became a five-time National Coach of the Year and earned her place in the Naismith Hall of Fame. She won national titles 30 years apart, the longest interval between championships in college basketball history.
VanDerveer stayed, despite getting calls from other programs. She satiated any appetite to leave by spending a year away from Stanford coaching the U.S. women’s national team in the Atlanta Olympics. She won there, too, taking gold in 1996.
For 38 years at Stanford, VanDerveer has captured the imaginations of generations of Bay Area basketball fans. Evi and Robert Byer, both 82, have been coming to games at Maples Pavilion since the program began in 1974; they saw VanDerveer’s first win for the Cardinal and her record-breaker. Addie Jepsom, 5, attended her first game on Sunday. She hasn’t started playing basketball yet, but said the women on the court playing for VanDerveer make her want to.
“This is the house that Tara built,” former player and postgame celebration host Ros Gold-Onwunde said.
The hundreds of women VanDerveer has coached have gone on to become doctors, NCAA coaches, WNBA legends, broadcasters, and business executives. She rarely forgets their birthdays and loves seeing their families in Christmas cards every year. Many former players call VanDerveer the most influential figure in their lives besides their parents.
Dozens of them were inside Maples Pavilion, first in the nearly sold-out stands and then on the court for the postgame festivities that included a video montage with testimonials from Billie Jean King, Dawn Staley, Steve Kerr and Condoleeza Rice.
They all know the Tara-isms. Some days you’re the dog, some days you’re the hydrant. You’re a Ferrari, quit driving like a Volkswagon. And a newer one: Do your best, forgive the rest.
VanDerveer is the first to admit she’s not perfect, but she doesn’t have much to forgive. While sustaining excellence over decades, she managed to avoid making enemies in the sport. Her standards and morals have always remained the same as the sport — and world — around her evolved.
“You always walk out of this program better than when you entered,” former star Chiney Ogwumike said during the postgame festivities, later adding that VanDerveer is “The G.O.A.T.,” the greatest of all time.
On the court, VanDerveer has constantly innovated through just about every offensive and defensive scheme invented. To beat Oregon State for the record, she schemed her team to withstand the loss of star center Cameron Brink, who missed the game with a left leg bruise.
Kiki Iriafen dominated both inside and out, hitting the first two 3-pointers of her career en route to a career-high 36 points. Point guard Talana Lepolo also picked up some scoring slack, helping Stanford pull away from the Beavers late to the tune of “Ta-ra! Ta-ra!” chants from fans.
Winning isn’t everything for VanDerveer — “being part of players’ lives is what it’s all about,” she said — yet she has done it more than anyone. When the current team and scores of alumni posed for a group photo on stage, “We Are Family” played over the arena speakers. It was a fitting song for VanDerveer’s players who consider her a maternal figure.
“This team is a family,” VanDerveer said postgame. “I can tell Talana something, I can coach Talana or coach Kiki because they know I love them.”
Connecticut’s Geno Auriemma is only a handful of wins behind VanDerveer and could eventually pass her, but he’s just a year younger than VanDerveer, and she isn’t slowing down. She still relishes going to the gym for practice and coaching players like Brink and Iriafen. Coaching is so fun for VanDerveer, she has never considered it a “j-o-b job.” She embraces the challenges of team-building and problem-solving.
“At some point, it will be time for someone else,” VanDerveer said earlier this month. “And I’ll know when that is when that happens.”
When might that be?
“Sometime in the next 20 years,” she said coyly.
That’s plenty of time for generations, more celebrations, more family.
