Barbara Stevens was a three-sport athlete at Bridgewater competing in basketball (3 yrs). softball (2 yrs) and tennis (2 yrs). She captained both the tennis team in 1975 and the basketball team from 1974-76. Her strongest sport was basketball where as the Lady Bears starting point guard, Barbara led them to two MASCAC titles in 1975 and 1976.

Following her collegiate career at Bridgewater, Barbara has gone on to become one of the most successful women's basketball coaches in the country. From 1977-83, Stevens was head coach at Clark University where her teams advanced twice to the NCAA Division III Final Four in 1982 and 1983. Following Clark, Barbara went to Division I UMass-Amherst for three seasons (1983-86) before she found her present home at Bentley College where she has had some truly outstanding teams.

Since 1986, Stevens' Bentley tenure has included 27 NCAA tournament berths, 13 NCAA regional championships, nine appearances in the national semifinals, twelve 30-win seasons (including five straight from 1989-93) and 17 Northeast-10 regular season championships. She recorded her 900th career win during the 2013-2014 season when the Falcons went undefeated (35-0) and captured the program's first NCAA Division II Tournament title.

Barbara has been named the WBCA Division II National Coach of the Year five times, the Northeast-10 Coach of the Year 14 times and the WBCA District One Coach of the Year seven times. She was also named the Division II Coach of the Year by the American Women’s Sports Federation in 1989.              

Stevens was one of 100 members of the charter induction class into the New England Basketball Hall of Fame in October of 2002.