PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — “I'm proud to say that I had the opportunity to play under Vivian Stringer,” Valerie Walker says with both simplicity and gratitude. "We made 'HERstory.'"
Walker was one of the greatest players to ever take the basketball court at Cheyney University, a historically Black college.
She starred on Hall of Famer C. Vivian Stringer’s teams and helped the school known at the time as Cheyney State College advance to the first-ever NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball National Championship Game in 1982.
The All-American with the Wolves grew up in Atlantic City but moved to Piscataway, New Jersey. She first fell in love with track and field before basketball became her passion. A pair of Basketball Hall of Fame coaches played a part in bringing Walker to Cheyney.
“Coach Stringer came to my game at Piscataway,” said Walker.
“She said, ‘Hi, my name is Coach Stringer. I know you're wet and you're tired, but just remember my name.’”
Both Stringer and then-men's coach John Chaney, who eventually became the Hall of Fame men’s basketball coach at Temple University, recruited Walker. They also both played a part in coaching her through an unusual practice arrangement between the women’s and men’s teams.
“[Chaney] and Coach Stringer before practice, they got together and created whatever they needed to create for practice, or put all their skills, their mindset together,” said Walker.
“We're probably the only school that the men’s and women's teams practiced together. But we had great respect for one another, we learned from each other, and we supported each other.”
Walker said Stringer also played a mentoring role in her life off the court, particularly important for someone away from her family for the first time.
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“I felt like she cared about me and my well-being. She was concerned about me, not me as an athlete, but me as a person,” said Walker. “It was a security that, being away from home, I felt being at Chyeney in her presence.”
Walker helped carry the Wolves to the first-ever NCAA women’s basketball championship game in 1982. 40 years later, she sees the importance of the heritage that she and Cheyney University created for the game of women’s basketball.
“Our story needs to be celebrated. It needs to be told,” Walker said. “People need to know what we've done and the part that we played in women's basketball, and as far as being an HBCU.”
Related podcast: The journey to make sure the 1982 Chyeney State College Wolves get their just due.
