Rutgers honors Hall of Fame women's basketball coach Theresa Grentz

Despite being a three-time women’s basketball All-American basketball player, Theresa Grentz had no plans on staying in the game after graduating from Immaculata College in 1974.

Studying biology and chemistry, she envisioned a career in a research laboratory at Smith-Kline and French in Philadelphia, perhaps on the culinary side. That, or maybe working with therapy dogs since she loved animals.

What she initially wound up doing was teaching math and science in sixth grade.

Not exactly a map to being enshrined to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, nor being honored by Rutgers University on “Theresa Grentz Day” Saturday at Jersey Mike’s arena.

Time, and careers, do fly, and Grentz, who turns 71 in March, will be back on the hardwood where she coached for 19 seasons after being hired as the school’s first full-time women’s basketball coach in 1976. Six years later she coached her team to what remains the university’s only national championship, winning the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) title.

A commemorative banner hanging in the rafters will precede a 2 p.m. tipoff against Big Ten Conference foe Nebraska. Ceremonies will be held pre-game and at halftime.

“Feels like yesterday,’’ Grentz said about being hired 47 years ago. “Actually, it’s very traumatic when someone says that number. It throws you a bit, but it feels like yesterday.’’

These days her connection to the game is as a fan. Specifically for her grandchildren. “G Ma” has four of them, two of whom play the game at its grass roots: leagues in first grade and kindergarten.

“I go to the games, sit on the sidelines and listen to all the whacky parents yelling instructions to five and six-year-olds,” Grentz said. “I’m thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, they’ve lost their minds.’ I enjoy watching the games, though.’’

She also enjoys her new winter hobby of photography, having taken classes and become familiar with ISO issues. Many of the pictures are of course taken in gymnasiums.

As for her love affair with golf (90 rounds a year were common), it has essentially been put on hold. Her husband Karl has Stage 4 Distant Metastatic Prostate Cancer.

“We’ve been fighting that the last 20 months and taking care of my mother (93-years-old tomorrow),” she said. “But that’s the way it goes. You move on to other things, and it’s our turn right now so that’s what we’re doing. My mom’s mobility has declined, but she still does all the income taxes for everybody. But between the siblings we take care of the cooking, the cleaning, the laundry. But she’s still the queen. She runs everything from command central.”

What’s that?

Grentz first entered command central in basketball when she was interviewed for a part-time job as head coach at St. Joseph’s University. She wasn’t looking for a coaching job, but her playing reputation had her a familiar name in Philadelphia. She was hired on the spot and told right then that her team was waiting for her in the gym.

“I had just come from teaching, I’m in heels and wearing a dress,’’ she said. “So I just go to the gym. Didn’t think twice about it.”

After two successful seasons, she was interviewed by Rutgers Director of Athletics Fred Gruninger. Not his first choice, Queens College legend Lucille Kyvallos turned down the job (the school’s court is named after her), and Cathy Rush turned it down. She was Grentz’s coach when Immaculata won three national championships.

Success came quickly. Three seasons in, RU went 28-4, then 28-5, then 27-6 and then 25-7.

Just a few years after the AIAW title, the Scarlet Knights added seasons like 29-4 and 30-3 and won at least 20 games nine years straight. Young girls in the state who wanted to be basketball players looked up to the likes of June Olkowski, Telicher Austin, Sue Wicks and Liz Hanson.

“It was a wonderful time,’’ Grentz said. “I was young, starting out. There was a great sorority, fraternity, with all the coaches all about the same age with the same vision and expectations. And we really used each other to figure out how to get the job done, because it hadn’t been done.

“All the decision-makers were males, the idea of Title IX was in the process and there was no money allocated. It was just a matter of, ‘We’ll keep them out of our hair’ type of thing. So of course that wasn’t gonna’ sit with me. I wanted what was best for the kids, best for the school. And I will always love Rutgers.”

And, of course, her players.

“I’ve heard from so many. It’s been great,’’ she said. “I follow some on Facebook, like Mary and Patty Coyle, Sandy Tupurins, Kate Sweeney, Kathy Glutz. I don’t see them as retiring, though some of them are. I see them as 18-19-20-year-olds. Some have kids in college. They’re all doing well and I enjoy their successes. It was a great time to coach, and a marvelous time to be at Rutgers. I was very fortunate. I was blessed.”

So was Rutgers.

This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: NJ Rutgers honors Hall of Fame women's basketball coach Theresa Grentz