Marianne Stanley Is Again Running Her Own Show

In Marianne Stanley’s comfortable office at California’s Harmon Gym, there’s a sign sitting on a coffee table: “No whining. No crying. No sniveling.”

It seems a bit odd for Stanley, Cal’s new women’s coach, to have a sign like that lying around.

When she decided to sue her former employer for discrimination, Stanley was labeled a whiner, a crier, a sniveler--and much worse, all for daring to suggest that she should be paid the same as her male counterpart at the University of Southern California, men’s basketball coach George Raveling.

With the lawsuit, still pending on appeal, came more than two years spent as a coaching outcast.

“I lost the security of my retirement. All my income has either gone toward legal fees or just to support myself when I didn’t have a job,” she said. “I’d applied for lots of jobs and never got a chance to coach, because I’d done something taboo in sports: You don’t stand up to the status quo.”

Stanley was dismissed by USC in 1993 after asking for a pay raise to put her on a level with Raveling, who made $54,000 more than her. Her $8 million lawsuit against the school and athletic director Mike Garrett alleges discrimination and retaliation during contract negotiations.

As recently as last month, the case was heard by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which will decide whether to uphold a lower court ruling to dismiss the suit.

USC maintains the men’s basketball coach has different and greater responsibilities, said J. Al Latham Jr., an attorney representing the university and Garrett.

“USC did nothing wrong,” he said.

After her dismissal, Stanley sought a new coaching job--any job, from Div. I down to Div. III, including men’s programs. No school would touch the woman who coached Old Dominion to three national titles and had a 380-149 career record.

Stanley was doing odd jobs just to make ends meet when Tara VanDerveer called two years ago. The Stanford coach helped Stanley land a job as the school’s promotions director for women’s basketball.

Last season, when VanDerveer took a year off to coach the U.S. Olympic women’s team, Stanley and assistant coach Amy Tucker were named co-head coaches of the Cardinal.

“I had something she needed: somebody with experience, who didn’t have another agenda, who was familiar with the program to some degree, and who would support her in her being away from the team for a year,” Stanley said.

When the stint at Stanford ended, Stanley was once again looking for work. At the same time, Cal coach Gooch Foster resigned.

That’s when Stanley got a call from Cal athletic director John Kasser, an old friend who described her availability and proximity as “a dream come true.”

“I told her, ‘If I hire you or if I don’t hire you, it has nothing to do with your legal situation. Either you are the best person for the job or you aren’t,’ and it turns out she was the best,” Kasser said.

And with Cal, there were no hassles about pay equity. She was hired on at the same salary paid to then-men’s coach Todd Bozeman, and that was that.

Now Stanley is working long hours to turn around a program that has had a losing record for three straight seasons. She’s undaunted by the task, confidently declaring that she’s accustomed to winning.

Stanley, 41, was a player for the Immaculata College team that won two national titles in 1973 and 1974. At Old Dominion, she went 269-59 in 10 seasons with three NCAA titles.

During her tenure at USC, she recruited future Olympian Lisa Leslie and led the Trojans to the NCAA tournament’s round of eight in 1992. Last season, she helped guide Stanford to the Final Four.

Nancy Lieberman-Cline, inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame earlier this year, was one of Stanley’s players at Old Dominion. She calls Stanley a demanding but fair coach who never deserved the treatment she got at USC.

“I think that USC was absolutely in the wrong,” Lieberman-Cline said. “Marianne Stanley is one of the finest people I know. She didn’t lie, she didn’t cheat, she didn’t get anyone on probation. She didn’t ask for anything more than the law said she was entitled to.”

That is why Stanley continues to fight USC without regret. She vows to take her lawsuit to the U.S. Supreme Court if necessary.

“I look at the young women I work with as the people I have to be an example for, and my daughter is a senior at USC. If I’m telling them to stand up for themselves, and distinguish between right and wrong and make decisions based on what’s right, I’ve got to do the same thing, or I’m a hypocrite.”

While still pursuing her legal battle, Stanley is savoring her work like never before.

“Having been removed from the game arbitrarily at USC and having struggled to get back into it, I have an even greater awareness of how important and valuable what I do is,” she said. “So I’m just enjoying every single day.”