Dozens of Pat Summitt’s former Tennessee players and coaches descended on Knoxville over the weekend, making the basketball pilgrimage to say their final goodbyes to the winningest coach in Division I college basketball history.
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They start by reflecting on the lives of UT Womens Basketball head coach Pat Summitt who passed away at 54.
As fantastic as she was as a coach she was so much more as a person. I never heard the men question my ability to compete in the 3-on-3 tournament.
Editor’s Note: Chamique Holdsclaw played at Tennessee from 1995-1999 and the 6-foot-2 forward won three national championships with the Lady Vols; was the No. 1 overall pick in the 1999 WNBA draft and was the league’s rookie of the year; a 6-time WNBA All-Star, led the league in rebounding twice and scoring once.
So even though Summitt’s time has ended, her legacy will undoubtedly live on.
Summitt used the sport and her demand for excellence to empower women and help them believe they can achieve anything, taking no backseat to anyone.
“Since 2011, my mother has battled her toughest opponent, early onset dementia, ‘Alzheimer’s Type, ‘ and she did so with bravely fierce determination, just as she did with every opponent she ever faced”, he said in a statement.
When she stepped down, Summitt called her coaching career a “great ride”. “The Tennessee program, they were really the foundation that the modern era of women’s basketball was built on”.
It also highlights that she won a gold medal as head coach of the USA women’s national basketball team in 1984 and won eight NCAA championships. “In the midst of all that was going on, she was concerned about an individual’s feelings”.
I wonder how many of them were inspired in some way by Summitt or by a coach who was inspired at some point by Summitt. “But just to get words of encouragement from her was just unreal and unheard of”.
In her own career, Summitt played for University of Tennessee at Martin, and became the team’s assistant coach when she graduated from the school in 1974.
The Lady Volunteers basketball team established a dynasty in women’s competition, but as more than just a basketball program, it served to illustrate what was possible for young girls who wanted to work hard. She was a basketball coach that happened to be female.
“Pat started playing college hoops before Title IX and started coaching before the NCAA recognized women’s basketball as a sport”, President Obama said. We always had great crowds for that and she was always willing to schedule teams that were lesser quality than hers. “She’s been missed in the women’s basketball community these last few years”. She was 22, and would wash the uniforms of her players.
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“I think one of her strengths that she had was her instincts for people”, said Tanya Haave.
