Princeton Athletics Receives Anonymous Gift to Endow the Women’s Basketball Head Coach Position
12/17/2020
The Princeton University Department of Athletics is pleased to announce the endowment of the women’s basketball head coach position, the second women’s head coach endowment in the athletic department’s history. The first endowed women’s head coach position, in women’s lacrosse, was announced in September 2020.
Funds from this anonymous gift will benefit both the women’s and men’s basketball programs and enable student-athletes to maximize their performance and their physical and emotional growth while getting the full benefit of “Education Through Athletics.”
“We are so grateful to receive this truly impactful gift, especially as we celebrate 50 years of women’s athletics at Princeton” says Ford Family Director of Athletics Mollie Marcoux Samaan ’91. “Our women’s basketball program exemplifies the excellence and tradition that we are so proud of as a department, and this gift honors that tremendous tradition. This gift also acknowledges and supports the transformative impact that athletics has on the undergraduate experience and the value that so many place on the ability of athletics to grow leaders and build community.”
The anonymous donor found inspiration in many different areas, including a deep belief in Princeton and its mission, a clear understanding of the power of Princeton women’s athletics, a desire to not only support current and future participants, but also to recognize the important contribution and legacy of past players and coaches, and finally, a great respect for the leadership team within Princeton Athletics and Princeton women’s basketball.
The women’s basketball team was one of the original six varsity women’s teams at Princeton, and it played its first game on Feb. 2, 1972. The team started out by winning four straight Ivy League championships from 1975-78 and then won additional titles in 1985, 1999 and 2006.
Princeton won again in 2010 under coach Courtney Banghart, and since then the team has dominated Ivy League women’s basketball and become a regular in the postseason and the national rankings, as well as a program that has regularly produced professional players, including two currently in the WNBA.
Princeton has won eight of the last 11 Ivy League championships and appeared in eight of the last 10 NCAA tournaments, a run that would have almost certainly been 9 for 11 had the 2020 event been played. Princeton in 2016 became the first Ivy League basketball team, male or female, to receive an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament, and the team has also played in the WNIT in the two years it has not reached the NCAA tournament since 2010.
The women’s basketball team is now coached by Carla Berube, who in her first season of 2019-20 led the Tigers to a 26-1 record and saw her team become the first in Ivy League history to go 14-0 while winning every conference game by double figures.
Berube led Princeton into the national Top 25 for most of the season, and with an RPI of nine at season’s end, the Tigers figured to earn the league’s highest seed in the NCAA tournament before it was cancelled due to the COVID pandemic.
“On behalf of the women’s basketball program, I am beyond grateful for this generous gift that undoubtedly honors the Princeton philosophy of ‘Education Through Athletics,’” says Berube. “This gift is a celebration of the women who wore the Princeton jersey and laid the groundwork of our program. Further, it is a game-changer for current and future generations of Tiger student-athletes. Princeton Athletics has an unparalleled alumni community, and I am so grateful for the unwavering support it continues to demonstrate. This gift will enable the program to continue the legacy of providing our student-athletes with world-class athletic and educational experiences and a lifetime of extraordinary memories.”
Berube is a 1997 graduate of the University of Connecticut, where she scored 1,381 career points and helped the team to a four-year record of 132-8. She was one of the key players on the Huskies’ 1995 team, which went 35-0 and won the NCAA title.
Before coming to Princeton, Berube spent 17 years as the head coach at Division III Tufts, going 384-96 in 17 seasons while reaching the NCAA Division III final twice, the Final Four four times and the Sweet 16 nine times, including each of her last eight. Berube, who has also coached as part of the USA Basketball program, was the 2015 Pat Summitt Trophy winner as the Division III National Coach of the Year and a three-time regional coach of the year.
“Princeton women’s basketball represents a commitment to excellence and to the team, to being a part of something bigger than themselves and to competing at the very highest level,” says Franklin C. Cappon-Edward G. Green ’40 Head Coach of Basketball Mitch Henderson ’98. “And each team is a reflection of their coach. Carla is a tremendous leader and teacher and I’m so grateful for this endowment that will undoubtedly help her to bring Princeton women’s basketball to even higher heights. The gift will help to fund critical needs of our respective programs and we are extremely thankful for that incredible support.”
Henderson, behind only Pete Carril and Franklin C. "Cappy" Cappon, is the third-winningest coach in men’s basketball program history. Henderson has coached 21 All-Ivy League honorees in his first nine seasons and 10 Princeton alumni under his tutelage have gone on to professional careers.
The Princeton men’s basketball team, which dates to the 1901 season, has won 33 league championships, with 27 Ivy League titles and six others in the Ivy League’s forerunner, the Eastern Intercollegiate Basketball League. Princeton reached the 1965 NCAA Final Four and won the 1975 NIT. The 2017 Tigers, under the leadership of Henderson, became the first, and still only, Ivy men’s basketball team to go 16-0 when the team had a perfect regular season and then won the first Ivy League tournament as well.
An official naming of the endowment will be released at a later date.
For information about supporting Princeton Athletics, contact Kellie Staples, Senior Associate Director of Athletics, Advancement at kgale@princeton.edu or 609.258.6696.
