Her intensity was legendary and her coaching and teaching even more so. “She’s the most important figure in the history of the sport”, said Kara Lawson, a former UT point guard and current ESPN basketball analyst. She won eight national championships, 32 regular season and tournament Southeastern Conference titles and led the Lady Vols to a ideal record in 1997-98.
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Tennessee women’s basketball coach Holly Warlick calls the impact Pat Summitt had on her life “profound”. We weren’t in their paper, and we were more than an hour away from them, but she got online and saw how we did that year. “Pat Summitt never apologized to any one of her players for expecting the most out of them, demanding it and getting it. It’s nearly too overwhelming to answer at this point because she just meant so much”.
An awesome person on and off the court.
Summitt brought the University of Tennessee’s womens basketball program pure dominance of play in her 38-year career.
“It goes beyond the basketball floor”. After leaving Tennessee, she coached three seasons at Illinois State and two more at Columbia before stepping down to become executive director of the Kay Yow Cancer Fund.
University of Iowa Women’s Basketball Head Coach Lisa Bluder also remembering Summit saying, “I have a heavy heart this morning, hearing about the loss of one of the greatest women’s basketball coaching legends ever”. “I think pat would be glad to know that this group of lady vols are really caring for each other”. She inspired me, and gave us all an example of what it takes to chase excellence. “He was the thread to the family that kept us all together”, she said.
GENO AURIEMMA, University of Connecticut Basketball Coach: When people talked about women’s basketball in America, college women’s basketball in America, it was Pat Summitt and Tennessee. I remember when I first was having issues in college, she met with me and told me, “You have to do what makes you happy”.
Anchor Allison Latos spoke with one of her former players from Charlotte, who rushed to Knoxville to see her one last time.
While coaching the Lady Vols, Summitt led them to eight NCAA championships (1987, 1989, 1991, 1996-1998, 2007, 2008) and finished her career with a record of 1098-208. A private ceremony will be held for Summitt in Middle Tennessee, while a public ceremony is being planned at Thompson-Boling arena on Summitt’s home court in Knoxville.
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“He looked back at us and walked away and sat down, and Pat ran the rest of practice”, Williams said. But she knew in Summitt, Alzheimer’s would have a formidable opponent.
