Former Old Dominion women’s basketball coach Marianne Stanley is one of seven members of the 2016 Virginia Sports Hall of Fame induction class, the organization announced on Tuesday. Stanley led the Lady Monarchs to three national championships during her ten years at the helm of the ODU program, winning back-to-back AIAW titles in 1979 and 1980 as well as the NCAA trophy in 1985.
Stanley served as the Lady Monarchs’ head coach from 1977 to 1987, compiling a ten-year mark of 268-59 and helping put the Lady Monarch basketball program on the map. Along with the national titles, she led the team to a NWIT title in 1978 as well as four Sun Belt Conference Championships after joining the league in 1982. Her career winning percentage of .820 is the best of any coach in ODU women’s basketball history.
Stanley’s teams won 30 or more games four times and enjoyed eight seasons of 20 or more wins. She was the AIAW National Coach of the Year in 1979, and a five-time Virginia Coach of the Year in 1979, 1980, 1981, 1984 and 1985. Stanley also served as head coach at the University of Pennsylvania, California-Berkeley and the University of Southern California, as well as an assistant coach at Stanford where she helped guide The Cardinal to the NCAA Final Four in 1996.
Stanley is also a member of the The Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame and the ODU Sports Hall of Fame. She joins her former players Nancy Lieberman and Anne Donovan in the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame. Currently, Stanley is an assistant coach for the Washington Mystics of the WNBA.
Other inductees include former Norfolk Tides general manager Dave Rosenfield, former University of Virginia linebacker James Farrior, former James Madison and UVA sports information director Rich Murray, Virginia Union basketball player Charles Oakley, the NFL's Charlie Stukes and professional soccer player Robert Ukrop.
The class will be inducted in a ceremony on April 30 at the Renaissance Portsmouth-Norfolk Waterside Hotel in Portsmouth. Tickets are on sale at 757-393-8031 and www.vshfm.com.