University of Missouri Athletics

A pioneer of the women’s basketball game at Mizzou, Rutherford is the winningest women’s basketball coach at the school, with a career record of 422-263 (.617 winning percentage) in 23 seasons. She took over as head coach just one year after the program was established at the varsity level, and Mizzou enjoyed winning seasons under her direction in 19 of her 23 years at the helm, claiming Big Eight Conference championships in 1984, 1985, 1987 and 1990. Her teams also claimed five conference tournament titles, winning it in 1978, 1983, 1985, 1986 and 1994. Rutherford was named Big Eight Coach of the Year in 1984, 1985 and 1990, and was also tabbed as the Big Eight Coach of the Decade for the 1980s, when her teams went a combined 213-98 (.685 winning percentage). Rutherford-led teams won 20 or more games 11 times, including an impressive stretch from 1977-87 when they did so 10 times in 11 seasons. Mizzou reached six NCAA Tournaments under her direction (reaching the Elite Eight in 1982) and four times finished a season ranked among the AP top 20 (11th in 1984, 13th in 1978, 15th in 1983, and 20th in 1982). She had an amazing stretch from 1983-84 to 1986-87, when the Tigers won Big Eight titles in three of the four years, going 25-6 overall (12-2 in Big Eight play) in 1983-84, 22-9 overall (12-2) in 1984-85, 20-12 overall (8-5) in 1985-86, and 20-9 overall (9-5) in 1986-87. She coached nine first-team all-conference players including all-time greats Joni Davis and Renee Kelly, each of whom have their jerseys retired. Highly regarded among her peers, Rutherford served on many high-level national committees, and coached the South team in 1986 to a gold medal in the U.S. Olympic Festival. She also served Missouri as the department’s senior woman administrator during the latter part of her career at MU. Rutherford was inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in 2017.