Awards

Bicentennial Medal - 2021

College of Arts and Sciences Distinguished Alumni Award - 2012

Olympians - 1996

Women's Basketball

United States of America

Atlanta, Georgia

Head Coach

Gold Medalist

IUB Athletics Hall of Fame - 1995

About Tara VanDerveer

Tara VanDerveer is the head coach of the Stanford University women's basketball team, hired in 1985. She has led the Stanford Cardinals to two NCAA Championships, 10 NCAA Final Four appearances, 20 Pacific 10 Conference titles, nine Pac 10/Pac 12 Tournament crowns and 24 trips to the NCAA Tournament. She is one of only six NCAA Division I women's basketball coaches to win at least 800 games.

VanDerveer became internationally known in 1996, when she guided the U.S. Olympic women's basketball team to a gold medal at the Atlanta Games. As coach of the U.S. national team, she accrued four gold medals in major international championships and won 88 games against only nine losses, for an astounding .917 winning percentage. VanDerveer's Stanford alumnae have consistently made their mark on the professional level, in some years occupying more roster spots than alumnae of any other school and winning numerous awards and titles in the WNBA and its predecessor league, the ABL. In 2011, she was formally enshrined into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

She originally attended the University of Albany to play basketball, but she transferred to Indiana University in her sophomore year, where she helped the women's basketball team reach the Final Four of the AIAW in 1973. VanDerveer then attended Ohio State for her master's in sports administration, coached their JV basketball team, and graduated in 1978. She later became the head coach of Idaho and Ohio State's women basketball teams before accepting the job at Stanford.

In 2021, she was awarded Indiana University's Bicentennial Medal in recognition of her distinguished service and support of the university.