But they can never be lost in the minds of those she touched, as a victor, as a coach, and as a mentor to two generations women.
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“‘She said if you don’t mind – if you have time in the next day or so, I would like to just stop by and visit with you.’ So I’m saying to myself she’s the iconic winningest coach of all time – wonder what she wants to talk to me about”. A public service to celebrate her life will take place at Thompson-Boling Arena, on the campus of the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. In the coaching profession, one is judged by her victories and Pat’s teams certainly won a ton of games.
His coaching career also began in the state at the University of the South.
Girls’ basketball coaches in York County are mourning the loss of Pat Summitt.
In 2011, Summitt revealed that she had been diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s, though she went on to complete the 2011-12 season with her famed Tennessee Lady Vols team, whom she coached for 38 years. “Her emphasis was to win. but it was more than winning basketball, it was winning in life”. She, herself, was known as being one of the toughest coaches around without regard to chromosomes – and I have seen her stare down many a player, many an opposing coach, and many an official with that icy stare she would impose when things weren’t going to suit her. I knew her personally and always enjoyed stopping by her practices to say hello when they were in town, both at LSU and Alabama, just because of the respect I had for her, and what she had accomplished.
On Tuesday morning in her office in Chapel Hill, Hatchell produced the game’s scorebook showing Pat Head (Summitt’s maiden name) scored eight points to six for Sylvia Rhyne (Hatchell’s maiden name). She reset their horizons.
Heat guard Josh Richardson remembers one of the first times he ever spoke to legendary University of Tennessee women’s basketball coach Pat Summitt.
JOHN YANG: That year, President Obama awarded her the Medal of Freedom.
Summitt is survived by her mother, Hazel Albright Head; son, Ross “Tyler” Summitt; sister, Linda; brothers, Tommy, Charles and Kenneth. “I think it probably caused me to second guess”.
“It’s women’s athletics and what she’s meant to not just basketball but for women’s sports across the board”. Then in 1996, Georgia and Tennessee played for a national title. She credits that competitiveness for getting her off the farm and into the career she had. “So we called up Pat”.
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Pat Summitt will be missed, but an entire nation is grateful for the doors she opened. She IS Tennessee Lady Vol basketball.
