CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Illinois women's basketball welcomes back former head coach and Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame Class of 2022 Inductee Theresa Grentz to celebrate her legendary career with a Hall of Fame banner ceremony on February 19 when the team hosts Penn State for a 2 p.m. tipoff. Tickets to attend the game can be purchased HERE.

The program's all-time wins leader oversaw the team for 12 seasons (1995-96 through 2006-07), guiding the Orange and Blue to the 1996-97 Big Ten Championship. Her Illini squads reached postseason play in 10 of 12 seasons, including five NCAA Tournament berths highlighted by back-to-back Sweet 16 runs in 1996-97 and 1997-98.

Over the course of her 35-year career as a head coach, Grentz tallied 681 wins, earning 210 of those victories while with the Orange and Blue. She began her career at Saint Joseph's (1974-76) and came to Illinois after 19 seasons on the sidelines for Rutgers (1976-95). Following her stint in Champaign-Urbana, Grentz logged two more seasons as a head coach at Lafayette (2015-17).

Grentz won the 1982 AIAW National Championship with the Scarlet Knights. She led Rutgers to three NCAA Sweet Sixteen appearances and two NCAA Elite Eight berths, culminating in a 434-150 record (.743) over 19 seasons. That mark included a 30-3 campaign in 1986-87, for which she was awarded National Coach of the Year honors.

As a student-athlete, Grentz earned three-consecutive AIAW titles at Immaculata University from 1972-74. Playing under her maiden name of Theresa Shank, she was a three-time first-team All-American for the Immaculata "Mighty Macs." In 1974, Grentz was named the National Player of the Year.

Grentz became the just the sixth Illini, and the only woman or coach, to be enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2022. The legendary head coach joined other Illinois greats Henry V. Porter, Andy Phillip, Abe Saperstein, Jerry Colangelo and Mannie Jackson when she was honored in Springfield, Mass. last September.