C. Vivian Stringer Earns WBCA Lifetime Achievement Award After Cheyney Legacy
Hall of Famer C. Vivian Stringer receives the WBCA Lifetime Achievement Award, honoring a career that began with a historic run at Cheyney University. Full story.
In brief
C. Vivian Stringer has received the Women's Basketball Coaches Association Lifetime Achievement Award, capping a career that began at Cheyney University — an HBCU outside Philadelphia — where she guided a program with almost no resources to the 1982 NCAA title game. Stringer later built powerhouses at the University of Iowa and Rutgers University, finishing with over 1,000 wins and a Basketball Hall of Fame plaque.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
The WBCA has awarded Stringer its Lifetime Achievement Award, the association's highest individual honor.
Stringer led Cheyney University — an HBCU with a fraction of Power Five resources — to the first-ever NCAA Women's Basketball Championship game in 1982.
She amassed more than 1,000 career wins across Cheyney, the University of Iowa, and Rutgers University over five decades.
Stringer was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2009, one of a small cohort of women's coaches to receive that distinction.
Her legacy carries direct weight in Washington, where HBCU athletic programs at Howard University and the broader HBCU policy debate remain live issues on Capitol Hill.
How Cheyney University Put Women's Basketball on the Map
Before Geno Auriemma built a dynasty at UConn. Before Pat Summitt became a Tennessee institution. Vivian Stringer was driving a van full of players from Cheyney, Pennsylvania, to road games because the university's budget didn't cover a bus. That context matters enormously when measuring what the Women's Basketball Coaches Association is actually honoring.
Cheyney University of Pennsylvania, founded in 1837 as the nation's oldest HBCU, fielded a women's basketball program that most opponents dismissed before tip-off. Stringer arrived in 1971 and rebuilt the program's culture from scratch. By 1982, she had done something no coach — at any school, with any budget — had done before: reached the inaugural NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Championship game. Cheyney lost to Louisiana Tech 76-62, but the run permanently altered the sport's landscape.
"She proved that excellence doesn't require a Power Five budget," said one former player in remarks cited by Sports Illustrated. "She required it from us regardless." That standard — demanding excellence in conditions designed to produce mediocrity — became the defining thread of Stringer's career.
Iowa, Rutgers, and the Architecture of 1,000 Wins
Stringer left Cheyney for the University of Iowa in 1983, where she built another program into a national contender and earned Big Ten Coach of the Year honors. Then came Rutgers University in 1995, where she spent the final chapter of her coaching career and cemented her legacy as one of the sport's transformational figures.
At Rutgers, Stringer reached three Final Fours and produced a 2007 title-game run that became famous less for the basketball and more for what followed it: Don Imus's racist and sexist comments about her players on national radio. Stringer's measured, dignified, and forceful response — holding a press conference that reframed the entire national conversation — demonstrated a kind of leadership that extended well beyond the sideline. NPR's coverage at the time captured how Stringer turned a moment of targeted cruelty into a masterclass in public advocacy.
She retired after the 2021-22 season with 1,055 career wins — third-most in women's college basketball history — and a legacy that spans three programs, five decades, and at least two eras of the sport.
What the WBCA Lifetime Achievement Award Actually Means
The Women's Basketball Coaches Association, headquartered in Atlanta, represents more than 6,000 coaches across all levels of the sport. Its Lifetime Achievement Award is the association's most prestigious individual honor, reserved for coaches whose contributions transcend wins and losses and reshape the sport's culture, infrastructure, or public standing.
Previous recipients include coaches who built programs at every level of competition. But Stringer's selection carries a particular weight because her path ran directly through an HBCU at a moment when women's athletics operated almost entirely outside the national spotlight. The NCAA's own history of women's basketball acknowledges the 1982 championship as a foundational moment — one Stringer created from Cheyney's campus in Delaware County, Pennsylvania.
Her induction into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2009 was the sport's highest individual honor. The WBCA award layers institutional recognition on top of that — a statement from the coaching community itself about what kind of career deserves to be studied, replicated, and remembered.
Why This Matters in Washington
Washington doesn't have a women's college basketball program that dominates national headlines, but the policy debates surrounding HBCU athletics land directly on Capitol Hill and inside the Department of Education. Howard University's athletic department — located four miles north of the Capitol on Georgia Avenue NW — operates under the same structural resource constraints that Stringer navigated at Cheyney in the 1970s and '80s. The story of what she built there is, at its core, an argument about what HBCU programs can achieve with equitable investment.
Stringer's award arrives as Congress continues debating HBCU funding equity, Title IX enforcement, and the future of college athletics under the new NIL and transfer portal landscape. Her career is a primary source document in that conversation. For the coaches at Howard, Bowie State, and Morgan State — all within the DC metro region — Stringer's recognition is institutional validation that the HBCU path produces excellence, not despite its constraints, but through the character those constraints forge. Follow WDCM's ongoing coverage at our Howard & HBCU Guide and DC Power Players Index.
Stringer's Career by the Numbers — and What They Don't Capture
The statistics are clear: 1,055 wins, three Final Fours at Rutgers alone, one historic championship-game appearance at Cheyney, and Hall of Fame status. But the number that WDCM finds most telling is this: Stringer built a top-four program in the country at an HBCU operating on a budget that Power Five programs spend on equipment alone. That ratio — output relative to input — may be unmatched in the history of women's college coaching.
Her career also produced an outsized number of players who became coaches, administrators, and advocates across the sport. The multiplier effect of her work — measured not in wins but in the careers she launched — is the dimension that makes the WBCA's Lifetime Achievement designation feel precisely calibrated. For more on the figures shaping DC's power landscape, see the WDCM DC Power Index and our HBCU coverage hub.
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FAQ: C. Vivian Stringer and the WBCA Lifetime Achievement Award
Q: What is the WBCA Lifetime Achievement Award? A: The Women's Basketball Coaches Association Lifetime Achievement Award is the organization's highest individual honor, presented to coaches whose careers have fundamentally shaped women's basketball at any level. The WBCA represents more than 6,000 coaches nationwide.
Q: Why is C. Vivian Stringer significant in HBCU history? A: Stringer coached Cheyney University — the nation's oldest HBCU, founded in 1837 — to the inaugural NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Championship game in 1982, a feat achieved with minimal institutional resources and no Power Five infrastructure.
Q: How many career wins did C. Vivian Stringer finish with? A: Stringer retired after the 2021-22 season with 1,055 career wins, making her one of the three winningest coaches in women's college basketball history.
Q: Is C. Vivian Stringer in the Basketball Hall of Fame? A: Yes. Stringer was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2009, one of a small group of women's coaches to receive that distinction.
Q: What schools did C. Vivian Stringer coach? A: Stringer coached at three programs across five decades: Cheyney University of Pennsylvania (1971–1983), the University of Iowa (1983–1995), and Rutgers University (1995–2022).
Q: How does Stringer's career connect to DC and HBCU policy? A: Washington is home to Howard University and sits at the center of federal HBCU funding debates. Stringer's achievement at Cheyney — building a national contender without Power Five resources — is a central argument in the case for equitable HBCU athletic investment, a policy question actively debated by Congress and the Department of Education.
The bottom line: C. Vivian Stringer's WBCA Lifetime Achievement Award honors one of the most structurally improbable coaching careers in American sports history. She took a program at a historically underfunded HBCU to the sport's biggest stage, then built two more powerhouses, accumulated over 1,000 wins, and entered the Hall of Fame — all while demonstrating, repeatedly, that character and culture outpace budget and prestige. The WBCA isn't just honoring a career. It's affirming a philosophy.
What to Watch Next: Track whether Stringer's recognition accelerates WBCA advocacy around HBCU athletic funding equity, and watch Howard University's women's basketball program — now competing in the Coastal Athletic Association — as the most visible DC-area HBCU program carrying Stringer's legacy forward. WDCM will continue following both threads. Stay current with our Power Moves and DC Politics Guide 2026.
Reporting drawn from: Sports Illustrated. Washington DC Magazine provides original analysis, DC-specific context, and editorial perspective beyond the source material.This article was produced with AI assistance and reviewed by WDCM editorial staff. Washington DC Magazine is committed to accuracy, transparency, and editorial integrity. If you believe any information in this article requires correction, please contact editor@washingtondcmagazine.com.
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CAN I KICK IT? screens New Jack City at the Sylvan Theater, Washington Monument, on Aug. 22. (Courtesy SHAOLIN JAZZ)
The live-cinema series CAN I KICK IT? returns to the National Mall this month with what its producers are calling the "Gangsters on the Mall" chapter of their free outdoor summer run. On Saturday, August 22, the SHAOLIN JAZZ production brings the 1991 crime classic New Jack City to the Sylvan Theater at the Washington Monument for a night of film, music, and community under the DC summer sky.
What sets the event apart is the sound. As the film plays, DJ 2-Tone Jones builds an original score in real time, reimagining one of the most iconic crime movies of the ’90s through hip-hop, soul, funk, and more. It is less a movie screening than a live performance built around the film.
The details:
Film: New Jack City (1991), with a live soundtrack by DJ 2-Tone Jones
When: Saturday, August 22 — seating opens at 7:30 p.m. (bring lawn chairs and blankets); film begins at 8:30 p.m.
Where: Sylvan Theater at the Washington Monument, Independence Ave SW & 15th St NW
A parking note from the organizers: expect road closures and restricted parking east of 14th Street NW due to a separate race event in the District. Roads west of 14th Street NW will be accessible and available for parking.
New Jack City is the second of three screenings in this year’s free CAN I KICK IT? outdoor series, which opened with Black Panther at Skyland Town Center and concludes with Scarface at the Lincoln Memorial on September 5. Produced by the Washington, DC-based multimedia arts company SHAOLIN JAZZ, the series has presented more than 150 live cinematic experiences at venues across the country, from Lincoln Center to SXSW.
"I wanted to be able to tell good stories with substance and remove the ‘ego’ out of the art," said Andrew Huang during a recent interview. Now, he’s building his career at the intersection of discipline, creativity and innovation.
Andrew Huang, founder of New Place Studios. (Courtesy photo)
As a Chinese American, Huang was reared with a deep respect for hard work, consistency and excellence. He describes his childhood as "not so affluent" and later attended college to hone his passion for videography. "In college I tried to do something I loved, which was video, but along the way I knew that I had to find a job. And so I thought, ‘what was the low hanging fruit to get to that stable 9 to 5 job?,’" he stated.
Later in life, Huang found himself working for corporations where his creativity was often limited, eventually leading to burnout. "I worked in a corporation for a long time and there were a lot of missing pieces. I wanted to fill in gaps missing in corporate video production," said Huang.
He later described how his upbringing and a mindset of "survival" led him toward a corporate career. However, his desire for balance and authentic storytelling ultimately pushed him to take the entrepreneurial leap.
"I founded a new place where you can create video and film with ‘substance and style,’" said Huang. His desire for work-life balance and passion for storytelling naturally evolved into a small business based in Virginia. With the launch of New Place Studios, the entrepreneur quickly found himself reconnecting with the values that would become the foundation of everything he creates behind the camera.
Huang said being a business owner has allowed him to first embrace himself. While others may see video as simply capturing moments, he sees it as a way to preserve stories that inspire, connect and leave a lasting imprint.
By combining cinematic visuals with cutting-edge production techniques and a keen understanding of branding, Huang helps organizations and individuals communicate their vision with purpose. He said understanding a client’s "why" serves as the compass for delivering the services they need.
One benefit of working with a small business, he said, is that clients get to see the production process unfold through a micro lens while working with the same faces throughout the entire project. "The work feels personal," said Huang.
Huang does not regret leaving behind the flash-over-substance mentality and corporate hustle culture. That does not mean the Asian American entrepreneur has been without challenges in the industry. "It’s relatively hard to find other Asian American creatives or people who would want to work with me in the DMV," said Huang.
He identifies the industry culture in which everyone is trying to blend in, creatives may fear displaying their Asian identity and some feel pressure to adopt an American corporate persona. He also points to what he describes as a level of gatekeeping within the industry. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration’s 2024 statistics, Asian American and Pacific Islander entrepreneurs own more than 3 million businesses and employ 5.2 million people in the United States.
After tapping into organizations such as SCORE, which offers free small business mentorship, New Place Studios has become a trusted creative partner throughout the DMV (Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia). The company produces a range of creative services, including commercials, corporate branding, documentaries, film, 2D animation, motion graphics and photography.
For Huang, entrepreneurship has become more than a departure from corporate life. It has given him the freedom to create with intention, build meaningful connections and tell stories that go beyond the surface.
The 2026 CAN I KICK IT? outdoor series. Poster courtesy of SHAOLIN JAZZ.
For three Saturdays this summer, some of Washington’s most familiar public spaces will do something they rarely do after dark: fill up with blankets, lawn chairs, and the sound of a movie being scored live, in real time. CAN I KICK IT?, the traveling “live cinema” series produced by the DC-based multimedia arts company SHAOLIN JAZZ, is bringing a free outdoor run to the city — pairing three era-defining films with an original soundtrack performed on the spot by DJ 2-Tone Jones.
The premise is what sets it apart from a normal screening in the park. Rather than simply pressing play, 2-Tone Jones builds a score as the film unfolds, pulling from hip-hop, soul, funk, jazz, rock, electronic music, and sounds from around the world. The result, the organizers say, is less a movie night than a one-time performance — the same film you know, wired to a soundtrack you have never heard and will not hear again. Guest DJs warm up the crowd starting at 7:30 PM before each 8:30 PM screening.
The 2026 outdoor schedule
All three events are free and open to the public.
Saturday, August 8 — Black Panther at Skyland Town Center. A pop-up marketplace and community activities kick off the evening; guest DJs at 7:30 PM, film at 8:30 PM. Marvel’s superhero epic gets a one-night-only live score in Southeast DC.
Saturday, August 22 — New Jack City at the Sylvan Theater, Washington Monument. Seating begins at 7:30 PM; the film starts at 8:30 PM. The 1991 crime drama plays out at the foot of one of the country’s most recognizable landmarks.
Saturday, September 5 — Scarface at the Lincoln Memorial. Seating at 7:30 PM; film at 8:30 PM. The series closes with Brian De Palma’s crime saga against the backdrop of the Memorial, scored live from start to finish.
First up: Black Panther at Skyland Town Center on August 8. Poster courtesy of SHAOLIN JAZZ.
A DC company with a national footprint
SHAOLIN JAZZ describes itself as a Washington-based arts company working at the intersection of music, film, art, and culture, and CAN I KICK IT? is its signature production. According to the organizers, the series has staged more than 150 live cinematic experiences around the country — at performing arts centers, museums, festivals, and cultural institutions including Lincoln Center in New York, SXSW, the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Republic Square in Austin, the Tacoma Armory, and The Cary Theater.
“CAN I KICK IT? has always been about creating a shared experience,” said Gerald Watson, co-founder of SHAOLIN JAZZ. “When you combine iconic films with live music in public spaces, something special happens. People aren’t just watching a movie — they’re experiencing it together. That’s what makes these nights so memorable.”
Cinema as a community event
The DC run lands as cities across the country look for new ways to activate public space through arts and culture — and this series is a straightforward pitch for how to do it: take a landmark everyone already knows, add a film everyone has an opinion about, and let a live soundtrack turn the evening into something neighbors experience shoulder to shoulder. Families, film buffs, and music fans are all invited, and admission won’t cost a thing.
The CAN I KICK IT? outdoor series runs August 8, August 22, and September 5. All events are free; check SHAOLIN JAZZ (shaolinjazz.com) for the latest details and any weather updates before heading out.
