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Tara Vanderveer is a popular American basketball coach who has been the head women’s basketball coach at Stanford University since 1985. She led the Stanford Cardinal to three NCAA Women’s Division I Basketball Championships: in 1990, 1992 and 2021. She is also one of only nine NCAA Women’s Basketball coaches to win over 900 games, and one of ten NCAA Division I coaches – women’s or men’s – to win 1,000 games. VanDerveer was inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in 2002. On December 15, 2020, she passed Pat Summitt for most wins in women’s college basketball history. On January 21, 2024, she became the winningest head coach in college basketball history, women’s or men’s, upon passing Mike Krzyzewski with her 1,203rd win. There has been a rumour about the possible relationship between Tara and her former associate head coach, Amy Tucker. Who is Tara Venderveer’s wife, husband or partner? Let’s find out.
Tara Vanderveer Biography
VanDerveer was born on June 26, 1953, to Dunbar and Rita VanDerveer. At high school, young Tara had no basketball team for girls so she used to play with boys instead. VanDerveer’s family moved to Niagara Falls in her sophomore year of high school. Though she had never played basketball at the high school level, VanDerveer took the game up again after she transferred to Buffalo Seminary, an all-girls college preparatory school, in her junior year. She earned a place in the Buffalo Seminary’s Athletic Hall of Fame.
Tara Vanderveer Career
VanDerveer initially played for Albany before transferring to Indiana. In her sophomore year, 1973, she helped the team reach the Final Four of the AIAW championship, losing in the semi-finals to Queens College.
After completing college, VanDerveer took a year off, with a plan to return to law school. When she ran out of money she returned home. When her parents realized she was doing little beyond playing chess and sleeping, they urged her to help with her sister Marie’s basketball team. Her sister was five years younger, and by the time Marie reached high school, the school had basketball teams for girls. Though frustrated by the lack of commitment from the girls on her team, VanDerveer discovered a passion for coaching basketball.
Inspired by the experience, VanDerveer applied to twenty colleges and universities for an unpaid graduate assistant position. She received only two responses, one of which was for Ohio State, where the athletic director had remembered her from Indiana. She was hired as an assistant coach of the varsity team and the head coach of the JV squad.
In her first year, she coached the JV team to an 8–0 season. That caught the attention of Marianne Stanley at Old Dominion, who offered her an assistant coaching position. VanDerveer wanted to finish her master’s degree, so accepted a paid position at Ohio State, at a salary less than a quarter of the Old Dominion offer.
After two years at Ohio State, during which VanDerveer earned a master’s degree in sports administration, she was hired as head coach at the University of Idaho in Moscow. Tara moved on to Stanford.
By 2019 Stanford had won two NCAA championships and 12 trips to the Final Four. VanDerveer’s coaching record at Stanford was 900–192, making her the fifth Division I coach to chalk up 900 wins at a single school.
On December 14, 2020, VanDerveer tied the record for coaching wins and then surpassed the existing women’s game wins record (held by Pat Summitt) when Stanford beat Pacific on December 16, 2020.
In April 2021, VanDerveer led the Cardinal to their third NCAA title with a 54–53 victory over their Pac-12 rival Arizona Wildcats. It marked their first title in 29 years.
On December 15, 2020, she passed Pat Summitt for most wins in women’s college basketball history. On January 21, 2024, she became the winningest head coach in college basketball history, women’s or men’s, upon passing Mike Krzyzewski with her 1,203rd win.
Tara Vanderveer Partner: Meet Her Wife, Amy Tucker
There has been a rumour about the possible relationship between Tara and her former associate head coach, Amy Tucker. Despite their closeness, Tara and Amy Tucker are only good friends. The basketball personalities have been captured sitting together and enjoying each other’s company, but none of them have spoken about their relationship.
Amy Tucker on the other hand is a former basketball player who remained an associate head coach of the Stanford Cardinal women’s basketball team and worked as interim co-coach during the 1995–1996 season.
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