Today, a makeshift memorial grew at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, and tributes rolled in, starting with Summitt’s greatest rival, University of CT coach Geno Auriemma.
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“I never met her, but was one of those people that through a TV screen, you learned a lot from”, Rader said.
But most importantly, Summitt was a champion on and off the court.
As Summitt settled into her seat in the first row, waiting for takeoff, the flight attendant in the jump seat opposite her began to sob.
Conradt retired in 2007 with 900 career victories and had the first undefeated national championship team in 1985-86. It meant the world to Catchings as she embraced her coach after the series clinching game.
North Carolina coach Roy Williams echoed those sentiments, noting Summitt belonged on “a Mount Rushmore of coaching”.
He also said Summitt had a hand in the Lady Techsters success in the 1980’s. She says it helped them through the “going home” grieving process. “I was one of the fortunate few who had an opportunity to play for her and know her on a personal level”. She made 22 trips to the Final Four, in NCAA and AIAW combined, compiled an.841 winning percentage, won 112 NCAA Tournament games, had a streak of 31 consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances, won 16 Southeastern Conference Tournament titles and eight national titles.
The University of SC players looked up to her, too. “We both went into coaching, got married about the same time and had kids about the same time, within a year of each other”.
A Celebration of Life Service honoring Pat Summitt will be open to the public on July 14.
The mourning around town wasn’t restricted to Tennessee’s campus.
Summit was the longtime coach at the University of Tennessee.
She was famous for her icy glare, her toughness, and most of all her will to win. Summitt’s legacy lives within the people she encountered.
“You think about how many daughters she has that’s she’s touched”.
Thank you coach Pat Summitt. “We had to know our teachers’ names”. Her son, Tyler, spoke to the “NewsHour”.
“She’s not a person that just talks the talk, she walks the walk as well”. No matter what I was going through during and after my college playing days, she was there for me. She was an outstanding Tennessean.
“She was just competitive in everything she did and had a tremendous sense of humor”.
“Pat Summitt was iconic”.
The United States didn’t compete in the Olympics in 1980, but Summitt returned, this time as a coach, in 1984 in Los Angeles. President Obama gave her the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012, the same year she received ESPN’s Arthur Ashe Courage Award.
“I was looking at that old scorebook this morning”, Hatchell said.
He says he and Michelle are sending condolences to Summitt’s family, former players, fans on Rocky Top and across America. “I owe her everything”.
One of Staley’s assistant’s, Nikki McCray-Penson played under Summitt at Tennessee.
“I’ve been coaching high school basketball for about 17 years now, and everything that I’ve been teaching, and everything to the core of what I’ve been taught, I’ve learned from her”, Harris said. “She acted like we were best friends”.
She says on a Nashville radio station, 104.5 The Zone, that the rest of the competition “measured their program by how you could compete with Tennessee”. And even in those darkening days before the disease overcame her, she reached out to those who helped her along the way.
Summitt had a great relationship with Louisiana Tech hall of fame coach Leon Barmore.
“She’s the pioneer”, Hatchell said.
Cronan says “the legacy she leaves is enormous”. Her players, who all have college degrees, have been enriched by her teaching.
She announced in 2011 at age 59 that she’d been diagnosed with early onset dementia.
Cronan is now the women’s AD emeritus at Tennessee.
In her 38 seasons at Tennessee Summitt never had a losing season.
Manning played football at Tennessee, leading the Volunteers to the 1997 SEC championship his senior year. And in turn, her players felt a duty to not let her down. “She was a fighter, and so am I”. “My thoughts and prayers are with Tyler and their entire family”.
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Over 38 years, Summitt racked up 1,098 wins, the most by any Division I college basketball coach ever, male or female.
