Tara VanDerveer Leaves Behind an Unparalleled Legacy in College Basketball

With 1,216 victories, Tara VanDerveer is the most successful college basketball coach in history. On Tuesday, she made her retirement announcement. After surpassing former Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski’s record of 1,202 victories this past season with her 1,203rd, VanDerveer became the winningest coach in history.

VanDerveer spent a total of forty-five years as a head coach, working at Idaho (1978–1980), Ohio State (1980–1985), and Stanford (1985–1995, 1996–2024). In her 38 seasons as head coach of Stanford, she guided the Cardinals to 14 Final Four appearances and three NCAA titles (1990, 1992, and 2021).

As stated in VanDerveer’s retirement press release, Stanford is in talks with Kate Paye, who served as her assistant for 17 seasons and was a player under her from 1991 to 1995, to take over as head coach.

This story will be updated.

(Photo: Abbie Parr / Getty Images)