Williams added that he and the men’s team always respected Summitt - even before she made them run. “He looked back at us and walked away and sat down, and Pat ran the rest of practice,” Williams wrote. She said, ‘Run sprints, and run them fast.'”The players looked at Pearl, hoping he’d step in. She got fed up and threw the ball and everyone stopped. “We was goofing around at Pat was watching. Stephanie White, Vanderbilt women's basketball coach. Emphasizing the importance of the media, the importance of high-character student-athletes, the importance of putting women in position to succeed in life, not just in sports.Īn impressive off-the-court statistic about Pat Summitt's 38-year career “She put women’s basketball on the map, much in the same way John Wooden is considered the leader of the men’s basketball community with what he did at UCLA. Pat really was the trailblazer in everything that we see today. Olympic women’s basketball team or the sold-out crowds at the NCAA Women’s Final Four or the glorious rivalry of Tennessee-UConn, there was Pat Summitt.Ĭhristine Brennan, USA TODAY Sports columnist. Well before Title IX was taken seriously, well before there were record ratings for women’s sports on TV, well before there was the dominance of the U.S. I see their faces.''Įvery girl and every woman who plays sports, and there are millions of them in this country, owes Pat Summitt one thing today: As Pat once said in recalling her achievements, 'What I see are not the numbers.

Her legacy, however, is measured much more by the generations of young women and men who admired Pat’s intense competitiveness and character, and as a result found in themselves the confidence to practice hard, play harder, and live with courage on and off the court. Her unparalleled success includes never recording a losing season in 38 years of coaching‎, but also, and more importantly, a 100 percent graduation rate among her players who completed their athletic eligibility. For four decades, she outworked her rivals, made winning an attitude, loved her players like family, and became a role model to millions of Americans, including our two daughters. 'Nobody walked off a college basketball court victorious more times than Tennessee’s Pat Summitt. Through this disease, through Alzheimer’s, she’s been exactly what she’s lived her entire life, and that’s strong.'Ĭandace Parker, another former player, remembered Summitt: She’s not a person who just talks the talk, she walks the walk as well.

“She has changed the way I looked at life, and the way all her players have. Then there's Tyler Summitt, son and women's basketball coach:

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