PISCATAWAY, N.J. — The Rutgers women’s basketball team will honor and celebrate the legacy of its first coach, Theresa Grentz on Saturday, Jan. 7 against Nebraska at 2 p.m. The game will be broadcast live on the Big Ten Network. Single game tickets can be purchased here.
The Scarlet Knights will honor the impact Grentz made on the program as the only coach to win a national championship in Rutgers’ history, in addition to the anniversary of Title IX and 50 years of women’s sports at Rutgers University. The first 1,000 fans in attendance will receive Title IX tumblers.
The team will celebrate Theresa Grentz Day and her enshrinement in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame Class of 2022, showing off her commemorative banner in the rafters of Jersey Mike’s Arena with letterwinners and fans in attendance for pregame and halftime ceremonies.
Grentz, who coached the Scarlet Knights as their first full-time head coach from 1976-95, amassed a 434-150 (.584) record during her 19 seasons “On The Banks”. She led the team to six Atlantic-10 Conference regular-season and four tournament titles in addition to the 1982 AIAW Tournament National Championship. Grentz guided RU to nine consecutive trips to the NCAA Tournament (1986-94) as 14 of her 19 teams won 20 or more games.
She coached three Kodak/WBCA All-Americans while at Rutgers – Kris Kirchner (1981), June Olkowski (1982) and Sue Wicks (1986-88). Wicks went on to earn National Player-of-the-Year honors in 1988. Grentz was named the Atlantic-10 Coach of the Year in 1986, 1988, 1993 and 1994. The Newark Star Ledger named her the Coach of the Year in 1986.
An eight-time New Jersey Coaches/ Writers Association Coach of the Year, the Metropolitan Women’s Basketball Association named her the Coach of the Year in 1993, and she earned her second Kodak District II Coach-of-the-Year award that same season. Inducted into the Nike Hall of Fame in 1992, Grentz also was named the 1987 Converse National Coach of the Year following a season which found her Lady Knights finish with a 30-3 record.
Her extensive international coaching experience while at Rutgers were capped by her selection as the head coach of the 1992 Olympic Team, where she led the United States to a bronze medal at the Games in Barcelona.
Grentz added to her selection to the Rutgers Women’s…
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