Tara VanDerveer

Tara VanDerveer

College Basketball Coach

Western New York native Tara VanDerveer began her coaching career for the Ohio State women’s basketball team. In five seasons, the Buckeyes won four Big-ten championships, compiled four straight 20-win seasons and made two post-season appearances. At Ohio State, VanDerveer was twice named Big Ten coach of the year (1983-84 and 1984-85).

For the past 12 years, VanDerveer has guided the Stanford Cardinal to a 306-70 (.814) overall record and 169-22 (.885) Pac-10 mark. During her tenure, Stanford made five Final Four appearances and won two NCAA titles (1989-90 and 1991-92).

Additionally, her teams have reached the Final Eight on seven occasions. Four times, VanDerveer-coached squads have posted 30-win or better seasons (1989-90, 1991-92, 1994-95, 1996-97), while in post season play, VanDerveer’s teams have gone 32-9 (,780) since the 1987-88 season.

Three times, VanDerveer has collected National Coach-of-the-Year (1987-88, 1988-89, 1989-90) honors, and she has been named Pac-10 Coach of the year on four occasions (1988-89, 1989-90, 1994-95, 1996-97). VanDerveer also earned Northern California Women’s Intercollegiate Coach-of-the-Year honors five times in six years (1987-88, 1988-89, 1989-90, 1991-92, 1992-93). VanDerveer was inducted into the Women’s Sports Hall of Fame in October, 1998 and coached the Gold Medal winning U.S. Women’s Olympic Basketball team in 1996.
 

The biographies contained on this website were written at the time of the honoree's induction into the Hall of Fame. No attempt has been made to update these narratives to reflect more recent events, activities, or statistics.