
Pat Summitt
basketball coach
There may be only a couple hundred miles between her childhood farm in middle Tennessee and Rocky Top {the top of the world to UT fans}, but, for Pat Summitt, it was the trip of a lifetime. A star athlete who entered college two years before Title IX, she left basketball in 2012 with the most wins of any NCAA coach ever ~ a record of 1098, to only 208 losses. She's even more proud of her students' 100% graduation rate.
Following a diagnosis of early-onset Alzheimer's, Pat resigned from the head coach position she'd held for 38 years. The woman who'd always helped others found herself needing help. She now leads the way as an advocate for Alzheimer's research + awareness, the co-founder of the Pat Summitt Foundation and a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
leadership | character + dignity
her coaching record | 8 championship titles + 1098 wins to 208 losses over a 38-year timespan ~ all at the University of Tennessee
student-athletes | 100% graduation rate
piercing blue eyes
1976 | co-captained first USA Olympic women's basketball team and won silver medal {she coached the team to gold in 1984}
1990 | first woman to receive the most prestigious award given by the Basketball Hall of Fame, the John W. Bunn Lifetime Achievement Award
2011 | at 59 years old, revealed she's battling early-onset Alzheimer's disease
from | to
dairy farm girl | legendary women's basketball coach
born on
June 14, 1952
born in
Clarksville, Tennessee
birth name
Patricia Sue Head
nickname
Trish
citizen of
The United States of America
daughter of
Hazel (Albright) Head
~ homemaker ~
Richard Head
~ dairy farmer ~
sister of
3 older brothers | Thomas, Charles and Kenneth
1 younger sister | Linda
grew up in
Henrietta, Tennessee
grew up on
the family's dairy farm
~ plowed fields, chopped tobacco and a host of chores alongside her family ~
educated at
Cheatham County High School
~ her family moved from Clarksville because there was no girls' basketball team ~
University of Tennessee-Martin
~ B.S., physical education | 1974 ~
University of Tennessee-Knoxville
~ M.S., physical education | 1975 ~
divorced from
R.B. Summitt
~ married 1980 - 2007 ~
mother of
Ross "Tyler" Summitt
~ women's collegiate basketball coach ~
in her spare time
pet lover | Sally Sue and Sadie
~ dogs ~
advocate for
cutting-edge Alzheimer's research through the Pat Summitt Foundation
died on
June 28, 2016
tweets
@patsummitt
collapse bio bits"Confidence is what happens when you’ve done the hard work that entitles you to succeed."
Reach for the Summitt | 1998
"You can't always be the most talented person in the room. But you can be the most competitive."
Reach for the Summitt | 1998
"Discipline is the only sure way I know to convince people to believe in themselves."
Reach for the Summitt | january 1998
"Sometimes it feels like I've spent my whole career as a head basketball coach trying to shuck labels . . . So the label I want to see attached to our team is this one: National Champions."
Raise the Roof | 1999
"When I say I don't like that word 'girl,' I'm talking about a much finer distinction. I'm talking about someone who was taught not to keep score."
book | 1999
"I don't like that word, 'girl.' I don't mean female. I don't mean somebody who wears a skirt and does laundry . . . I'm talking about someone who was taught not to keep score."
Raise the Roof | 1999
"For a snapshot of the women's game in 1972 imagine a full-grown woman walking around with a piggy bank, panhandling for change."
Sum It Up | 2013
"Despite everything, those of use who played basketball in the deprived, formative era of the early 1970s wouldn't trade the experience. In all the years afterward it gave us pride of ownership, a sense that we were the architects of our own game."
Sum It Up | 2013
curated with care by Meghan Miller Brawley {august 2014}
photo | Pat Head | UT-Martin women's basketball
A young Pat Summitt—still Tricia Head—in a publicity shot for UT-Martin women's basketball. When she started college in 1970, Title IX was still two years away, meaning the future Olympian and record-breaking coach wasn't eligible for an athletic scholarship (let alone worrying about whether or not she should be paid).
University of Tennessee-Martin
gold | 1984 Summer Olympics | Los Angeles
Pat Summitt is carried off the court by her team after winning the gold medal in the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. Eight years earlier, in 1976, Summitt co-captained the first U.S. women's basketball team and helped bring home a silver medal.
Sports Illustrated | Peter Read Miller
son | Tyler Summitt
After 6 miscarriages, Pat Summitt's son Tyler was born in 1990. "Finally, I got Tyler," she said, "and he was a gift from God." Tyler was famously nearly born on a plane, when Summitt's labor began while she was on a recruiting trip to visit a young Michelle Brooks-Marciniak (who went on to play for the Vols, in the WNBA, and coach at South Carolina). Tyler Summitt grew up on the basketball court, and is now a women's collegiate coach at Louisiana Tech, in Ruston, and serves as her spokesman.
University of Tennessee
1000th win
A video profile in honor of Pat Summitt's 1000th win ~ the first basketball coach to ever achieve, man or woman. By the time Summitt stepped down in 2012, her lifetime record was 1098-208—all with the University of Tennessee's Lady Vols, where she started coaching at age 22. In her 38-year career, every single woman on her teams graduated from college.
Pat Summitt Show | Courtney Lyle | Erik Peterson
honor | Presidential Medal of Freedom | may 29, 2012
President Barack Obama awarded Pat Summitt the Presidential Medal of Freedom—the highest civilian honor in the United States—in 2012, alongside Toni Morrison, civil rights worker Dolores Huerta and Madeleine Albright. "Pat’s gift has always been her ability to push those around her to new heights," he said.
White House | Lawrence Jackson
ESPY Arthur Ashe for Courage Award
Tennessee football star Peyton Manning presents the 2012 ESPY Arthur Ashe award to Pat Summitt, and introduces a tribute video. Summitt's remarks follow the video.
Tone Hoeft | Maggie Vision Productions