Summitt’s son Tyler said that she died peacefully at the Sherrill Hills retirement facility in Knoxville, Tennessee surrounded by loved ones.
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“It’s so sad because she’s just too young”, Sharp said of Summitt, 64, who lost a five-year battle with dementia and Alzheimer’s disease on Tuesday.
RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) – Richmond Women’s Basketball Head Coach Michael Shafer has personal experience with Pat Summitt.
At the same time, Cremeans says Summitt’s intensity pushed players to chase perfection and success.
“I always think I have something to teach them”, she said smiling. I’ve been a fan of hers and the way she so passionately and profoundly led our game. When he first met the legendary Pat Summitt, he was “scared”. Pat refuses to die because she knows so many people are wanting to see her. And it’s just Arby, and Tyler and Ms. Hazel, her mother. In her 38 years of coaching, she had more wins in Division 1 sports history than any other men’s or women’s coach, with 1,098 wins and eight national championships.
In her own career, Summitt played for the University of Tennessee at Martin, and became the team’s assistant coach when she graduated from the school in 1974.
Here in North Texas, the loss was felt at UT-Arlington, where women’s basketball coaches Krista Gerlich and Ashley Crawford said Summitt’s influence was enormous. They are three women who call themselves “The Cult” and they have been to hundreds of games over the past 30 years, most of which Pat Summitt coached. She enjoyed it while she was coaching, but to really have an opportunity to sit back and appreciate all the lives she touched, all the wonderful things that she accomplished.
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President Barack Obama awards the Medal of Freedom to former basketball coach Pat Summitt in 2012. (My wife) Wanda and I sent our daughter, Kimberly, to her basketball camp in Knoxville when I was coaching at Kansas, which is about as high a compliment one coach could give to another, because we wanted Kimberly to be influenced by Coach Summitt. Her impact on the world is far greater than the game of basketball. “She’s definitely a blessing to all of our lives that got to play there”.
