Former Penn State women’s basketball coach Rene Portland, who coached the Lady Lions to more than 600 wins in 27 years, has died after a battle with cancer. She was 65.
Portland had been battling peritoneal cancer since 2016 and died Sunday morning at her home in Tannersville, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Mel Greenberg.
The only coaching hire made by Joe Paterno during his tenure as Penn State athletic director, Portland took over the Lady Lion program in 1980 and built it into a national power. In 1991, the Lady Lions achieved a No. 1 ranking for the first time and in 2000 reached their first and to date only Final Four, falling to national champion UConn in the semifinals.
She won four Big Ten Coach of the Year awards and two WBCA National Coach of the Year honors while leading the Lady Lions to seven conference titles and eight conference tournament titles in the Atlantic 10 and Big Ten.
Portland’s time at Penn State came to an end shortly after accusations that she discriminated against players she believed to be gay, when in 2006 former player Jennifer Harris filed a lawsuit against Portland and the university. Comments Portland made to a reporter in 1986, in which she said she forbade lesbians in her program, also resurfaced at that time.
Portland was fined and suspended one game by Penn State after an internal investigation. She resigned in 2007, weeks after the lawsuit was settled.
In the early 1970s, Portland was a standout player on the ‘Mighty Macs’ teams of Immaculata College, where she won three consecutive Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women national championships, before women’s basketball was an NCAA sport.
After stints as the head coach at St. Joseph’s and Colorado, Portland came to Penn State and led the Lady Lions to a 19-9 record in her first season. In 1982, Penn State received a berth in the first NCAA women’s basketball tournament, where the Lady Lions would have a regular presence throughout Portland’s tenure with 21 appearances.
She finished her career with a record of 693-265 (606-236 at Penn State) and coached four first-team All-Americans and one national player of the year, Susan Robinson-Fruchtl.
“She taught us to play for something bigger than ourselves,’ Robinson-Fruchtl told the Inquirer. ‘She taught us to play for each other, to represent those who have impacted our lives, and to play for Penn State.”
Portland was a past president of the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association and coached the U.S. Junior National Team to its first gold medal at the 1997 World Championships.
During Portland’s tenure, the Lady Lions instituted the first ‘Think Pink’ game to support breast cancer research and awareness, an effort that evolved into the year-round Pink Zone charity.
She was inducted into the Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame in 2017.
Portland is survived by her husband, John, daughters Christine and DeLisa, and sons John Jr. and Stephen, as well as seven grandchildren. Funeral arrangements are being planned in her hometown of Broomall, Pa.
