Summitt, the legendary women’s basketball coach at the University of Tennessee died Tuesday at the age of 64, following a battle with early onset dementia, “Alzheimer’s Type”.
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Summitt helmed the University of Tennessee’s women’s basketball team as head coach for almost four decades.
“She accomplished so much for women’s sports, for sports in general and it’s a sad day but I’m glad she’s not suffering anymore because it was rough toward the end for her”, Smallbone said.
Former Lady Bulldogs head coach Andy Landers’ history with Pat Summitt as a friend and on-the-court foe spanned 40 years. “I wanted to be a Lady Vol growing up”.
During her 38 years as the head coach at Tennessee, Summit won 1,098 games, making her the winningest coach ever among men’s and women’s coaches. She also coached the Sparks, Southwest Texas State and Concordia College in Austin, Texas. To chop down the trees first.
“They called all of us out of class and into the office and she was sitting right next to me”, Harrison said. This is what a legend is. “In fact to me she’s number one” said Barmore Tuesday afternoon. As an assistant coach at the University of Georgia, Shafer witnessed first hand the stare that made Summitt famous as well as the effort a precision with which her teams played. “Her record and what she left off the court promoting the game and helping Louisiana Tech”.
“She was that pioneer, that person that you need to electrify that base of people”. In 1976, she played on the silver medal-winning team at the Montreal Olympics, and eight years later she coached the gold medal-winning team in Los Angeles.
“In terms on basketball, she started it, even though she didn’t invent basketball”, McEachern coach Phyllis Arthur said. “What a great role model she was for all coaches”. “She’s changed the way women’s basketball is played”.
“We are saddened by the news of Coach Summitt’s passing”, Mitchell said.
Summitt’s athletic accomplishments are stunning, but the quality of her character transcended sports. Therefore, you want to pick her brain. In the face of adversity she never showed weakness, she never backed down. Hatchell has gone on to win over 700 games in an illustrious head coaching career at North Carolina that includes a 1994 national title and Final Four appearances in 2006 and 2007.
Summitt was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2000.
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The years may have passed, but the impact Pat Summitt had on former John Marshall standout Amy Gamble is as evident today as it was in 1983. “She was doing things like leaving her vehicle running, forgetting where she parked her auto, getting lost in her neighborhood and things like that we knew something was up and she did too”.
