NEW YORK -- Marianne Stanley knew college success as a player and a coach and then earned coaching honors in the WNBA.
Stanley joined Herb Magee, who has won more than 1,000 games at Philadelphia University, and the late Fordham coach John Bach as winners of the Joe Lapchick Character Award on Friday.
Stanley won three AIAW titles as a player at Immaculata from 1972-74, playing for Lapchick winner Cathy Rush. She went on to win two AIAW titles in 1979-80 as the coach at Old Dominion and an NCAA title in 1985. Stanley also coached at Penn, USC, Stanford and California.
She was the 2002 WNBA coach of the year with the Washington Mystics and currently is an assistant for them.
The awards were presented at a luncheon in New York that celebrated the life of Joe Lapchick, a Hall of Fame coach with St. John's and the New York Knicks, who was known for his compassion and integrity off the court.
Magee has been involved with the Philadelphia program for 57 years as a player and coach. He enters his 50th season as the Rams' head coach with 1,032 wins. The Rams have made 29 NCAA tournament appearances, winning the NCAA College Division title in 1970.
Bach, who died in January at 91, played and coached at Fordham before coaching at Penn State. He was considered one of the top NBA assistants and an integral part of the Chicago Bulls' dynasty in the 1990s.
The award was first presented in 2008.