Standing tall, C. Vivian Stringer
Standing tall, C. Vivian Stringer
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Standing tall
A Memoir of Tragedy and Triumph

Author: C. Vivian Stringer, Laura Tucker

Narrator: Adenrele Ojo

Unabridged: 10 hr 16 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 03/04/2008


Synopsis

“Work hard, and don’t look for excuses,” C. Vivian Stringer’s parents told her, “and you can achieve anything.” But her faith and perseverance would be tested many times. A gifted athlete, she had to fight for a place on an all-white cheerleading squad in the sixties. In 1981, just as her coaching career was taking off, her fourteen-month-old daughter, Nina, was stricken with spinal meningitis. Nina would never walk or talk again. Still grieving, Stringer brought a small, poor, historically black college to the national championships–a triumph hailed as “Hoosiers with an all-female cast.” In 1991, her husband, Bill, fell dead of a sudden heart attack, but that same year, she led yet another young team to the Final Four. Through these dark times and others, Stringer has carried her burdens with grace. Given her history, it was no surprise that she led her team to respond to Don Imus’s slurs with dignity and courage.

STANDING TALL is a story of quiet strength in the face of punishing odds. Above all, it is an extraordinary love story–love for the game, for the players she has coached, for her close-knit family, and for the husband she lost far too soon. It will resonate long after the last word.

About The Author

C. Vivian Stringer is the author of the New York Times bestseller Standing Tall: A Memoir of Tragedy and Triumph. Stringer is the head coach of the Rutgers University women's basketball team. A member of the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame, she has been named National Coach of the Year three times by her peers. She was formerly the head coach of the University of Iowa women's basketball team and the Cheyney State women's basketball team. She was also the assistant coach for the gold medal-winning 2004 U.S. Olympic team. Born in Edenborn, Pennsylvania, she has two sons, David and Justin, and a daughter, Nina. She lives in New Jersey.Laura Tucker is a writer and former literary agent who has coauthored books on a wide range of topics, including health, fitness, parenting, and self-help. Her credits include Still Room for Hope by Alisa Kaplan, Standing Tall by C. Vivian Stringer, Shalom in the Home by Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, and Training for Life by Debbie Rocker. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.Adenrele Ojo is a native Philadelphian who was born in Brooklyn, New York, and currently resides in Los Angeles. First trained as a dancer as a little girl, she went on to study as a part of Philadanco’s Training Program; later she received her Bachelor of the Arts in theater from Hunter College in New York and honed her skills at the William Esper Studio, studying Meisner under the auspices of Maggie Flanigan.    Nominated for an L.A. Stage Alliance Ovation Award for Featured Actress in a Play for her role as Martha Pentecost in the Fountain Theater’s 2006 production of August Wilson’s Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, Adenrele Ojo, theatre brat (her dad, John E. Allen, Jr. was Founder & Artistic Director of Freedom Theatre, the oldest African American theater in Pennsylvania) is no stranger to the stage. In 2010 she performed in the Fountain Theatre’s production of The Ballad of Emmett Till by Ifa Bayeza, directed by Shirley Jo Finney, which won the 2010 L.A. Stage Alliance Ovation Award & the Los Angeles Drama Critics Award for Best Ensemble. Other plays include August Wilson’s Jitney and Freedom Theatre’s own Black Nativity (2007), where she played Mary.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Margie on December 01, 2009

This would be 3.5 stars if we could give half stars. The story is inspiring, but I don't understand why the trend lately for ghostwriters is to leave a palimpsest so that we can be certain the celebrity had help with the writing. Isn't the point to not impose the ghostwriter's style or voice? Worth r......more

Goodreads review by Mallory on December 09, 2024

Would give it 4.5. I don’t remember how I heard about Coach Stringer’s story but I put her book on hold immediately after learning she coached Iowa women’s basketball. This memoir was a sweet look at Coach Stringer’s life both personally and professionally. As someone who loves women’s basketball, I’......more

Goodreads review by Lenny on November 10, 2020

Excellent biography of Vivian Stringer and her trials and tribulations on her way thru life.......more

Goodreads review by Crystal on June 12, 2021

What a great story from one of the best coaches in women's basketball. She overcame so much in her life with style and grace. A very enjoyable read!......more

Goodreads review by Jean on July 29, 2011

For the first half of this book, i tho't it was too schmaltzy, in fact i put it down for a couple of months. I picked it up last week and she was just "going to Rutgers" as coach. The rest of the book seemed to me to be so much better than the first half. It moved along better, it was more interesti......more