Former CU Women's Coach Rene Portland Dies After Battle With Cancer
July 23, 2018 | Women's Basketball, Neill Woelk
BOULDER — Former Colorado women's basketball coach Rene Portland, who helped establish a competitive foundation for the program and set the stage for long-term success, died Sunday after a three-year battle with cancer.
Portland was 65.
Portland coached at Colorado for two seasons (1978-79 and 1979-80), compiling a 40-20 record that included a 19-4 mark at home. Her second CU team won the Mountain Division of the Intermountain Conference and advanced to the semifinals of the Region VII playoffs.
Portland left Colorado in 1980 for Penn State, where she coached for 27 years. There, she led the Nittany Lions to 21 NCAA Tournament appearances, including a Final Four berth in 2000, as well as five Big Ten championships and eight conference tournament titles. She finished her career with 696 victories, with 606 coming at Penn State.
Portland helped bring Colorado to prominence by recruiting on a national basis and bringing to Boulder players who made the Buffs competitive. Her first CU team went 22-9 overall and 10-3 in Intermountain play, the first time a Colorado women's team produced a winning league record.
"Rene was a really great coach," said former CU coach and current senior associate athletic director Ceal Barry. "She jump-started Colorado's women's basketball program in 1978. She recruited players from the East Coast who transformed the program and set the stage for a nationally-ranked team. Players like Debbie Descano, Gail Hook, Corky O'Rourke and Betsy Bailey came here because of Rene."
Barry also noted that Portland and her staff were at least partially responsible for helping recruit one of the greatest players in program history, Lisa Van Goor.
Portland left before Van Goor ever played a game in a Buff uniform. But Van Goor still chose to attend CU, and she helped Colorado make its first-ever national tournament appearances by earning back-to-back berths in the AIAW national tournament in 1981 and '82 under the guidance of head coach Sox Walseth (women's basketball didn't come under the NCAA umbrella until the 1982-83 season).
Portland played college ball at Immaculata, where she was part of three AIAW national championship teams. She then coached at St. Joseph's for two years before she was lured to Colorado by then-athletic director Eddie Crowder.
During her career, she also served as president of the Women's Basketball Coaches Association, and played a major role in helping the NBA develop the nation's first women's pro league, the WNBA. She also served as a coach for USA Basketball, leading the U.S. national junior team to a gold medal at the 1997 World Championships.
She was also a two-time national coach of the year.