April 27, 2002
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Tara VanDerveer, who has led Stanford to two NCAA Championships, led a class of eight inductees into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame on Saturday night in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Cindy Brogdon, Kamie Etheridge, Margaret Sexton Gleaves, Hortencia Marcari, Sandra Meadows, Lea Plarski and Marianne Stanley completed the 2002 class at Saturday night's induction.
VanDerveer has won two national championships in 17 seasons at Stanford. She also led the U.S. team to the gold medal in the 1996 Olympics.
VanDeeveer, who came to Stanford after stops to Idaho and Ohio State, has a career record of 548-145 in 22 seasons. In 16 seasons on The Farm, she is an impressive 396-105. VanDerveer has also led Stanford to five Final Four appearances, 10 Pacific-10 Conference titles and 14 NCAA Championships.
"We've seen so many changes in women's basketball but some of the old time things are good things. When it's all said and done, it's not wins and losses but the great friendships I have that I will treasure," VanDerveer said.
VanDerveer helped extend Stanley's coaching career.
Stanley was out of a job in the summer of 1993 when her contract at Southern California expired and she sued the school to contest her salary.
Stanley alleged sexual discrimination because she was paid less than the coach of the men's team. A federal judge dismissed the lawsuit in 1995, and an appeals court upheld that ruling in 1999.
VanDerveer assisted Stanley in getting a job in basketball operations at Stanford.
Stanley later helped coach Stanford when VanDerveer took a year off to coach the U.S. Olympic team.
"In terms of resurrecting my career, there is no one more important than Tara VanDerveer," Stanley said. "She took a huge step and had a lot of courage to hire me when no one wanted to touch me."
VanDerveer just saw a good coach out of a job.
"I think one of the things that in some ways seems to be missing in women's basketball is what I call positive recycling," VanDerveer said. "Sometimes a person is not a great fit for a certain school or a certain program but they are a great coach and a great person. That's how I felt about Marianne."
Stanley, a point guard from AIAW-power Immaculata, was an assistant coach at Old Dominion in 1976 and was promoted to head coach the following year.
She led Old Dominion to three national championships before leaving in 1987. Stanley then coached at Pennsylvania, USC and California-Berkeley before becoming an assistant with the WNBA's Los Angeles Sparks. Earlier this month, she became the head coach of the Washington Mystics.
Other inductees represented national and international basketball at all levels.
Meadows was high school coach in Duncanville, Texas. She died of cancer in 1994 at the age of 59.
She won four state championships and didn't lose a game between Dec. 30, 1987, and March 1, 1991.
Brogdon, who transferred from Mercer to Tennessee, was a member 1976 U.S. team that won a silver medal in the first women's basketball competition in the Olympics.
Brogdon, who averaged 25 points in her career, is a coach at Centennial High School in Roswell, Ga.
Etheridge, a gold medal winner on the 1988 US Olympic team, was a star point guard for Texas. She had a school record 776 assists in her career and was a member of the 34-0 national championship team in 1986.
Gleaves played AAU basketball in the 1940s and was a defensive force in the era of half-court basketball.
Marcari led Brazil to victory in the World Championships in 1994 and led her country to a silver medal in the 1996 Olympics.
Plarski, athletic director at St. Louis Community College at Florissant Valley, was honored for her contributions to USA Basketball, the U.S. Olympic committee and the International Basketball Federation (FIBA).