A TOUGH YET GENTLE SOUL
IN HER OWN WORDS: JODY CONRADT ON PAT SUMMITT
The first time I caught a glimpse of Pat Head’s fiery competitive spirit wasn’t at the scorer’s table to shake hands after our two UT teams had battled against one another on the hardwood. • It was circa 1974 when we were counselors at a Patsy Neal Basketball Camp in North Carolina. At the end of the day, the counselors would play pickup, and I can remember being impressed with the wiry, hard-nosed guard with the thick Tennessee drawl.
This was years before I became the coach at Texas and around the time she’d taken the helm at Tennessee. Even then, I knew. I think we all did.
At 22, Pat had a focus, an intensity that most people couldn’t comprehend. She loved competing. She loved maneuvering. And yes, she loved winning.
She had a hunger. A drive. A sixth sense about the game. She was always the consummate student. Always thinking. Always improving.
Once we settled in at our respective institutions in our respective shades of orange, I think we both realized the opportunity before us. We also recognized our many connections.
We were leading teams at dominant football schools.
We were at our states’ preeminent public institutions.
We aspired to turn our women’s basketball programs into powerhouses.
Our conversations about the women’s game started years before our teams faced one another. For us, coaching was always bigger than basketball. It was always bigger than us. It eventually became bigger than both of our respective UTs. And let’s face it, that’s pretty big.
Pat’s first salary at Tennessee was approximately $250 a month and included laundry duty for her team. My initial salary at Texas made headlines in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “Woman Earns Man-Size Salary: $17,000.”
Clearly, for us, it wasn’t about the money. It was about the responsibility to a game that had already given us a great deal. A game that would afford us opportunities that country girls like us could only dream about. We knew we were women entering a male-dominated arena. We knew there would be many things we could not control.
Birth of a series
So instead of focusing on those things, we decided to focus on the few things we could influence. If our teams were good, people would eventually take notice. And if our two good teams played one another, more people would pay attention.
Our agreement was simple. We would commit to playing each other every year, alternating the games between Austin and Knoxville, Tenn. It was a pact we hoped would reverberate across the women’s basketball landscape.
On Dec. 9, 1982, the first game of the Texas versus Tennessee series was born. We won that inaugural game 74-59.
By 1986, both teams had become dominant forces in their respective leagues. We played in the now-defunct Southwest Conference, Tennessee in the Southeastern Conference.
We dominated the series early, going 4-0 from 1982-86 en route to becoming the NCAA’s first undefeated team to win a national women’s basketball championship.
The next season, on Dec. 14, 1986, we’d lose to the Lady Vols 85-78 in Austin. As fate would have it the following spring, Pat would stand on a ladder to cut down the nets in the Frank Erwin Center in Austin as her team became the NCAA champs, the first of eight titles in her 38-year career.
The following season, we would travel to Knoxville to play in front of 24,563 fans, setting a Guinness World Record for women’s basketball attendance. We were happy to come away with a victory, but more importantly, I remember marveling at how hard their marketing department had worked to pull off such an amazing feat and how excited we were to be a part of history.
From 1990 to 2000, we (Texas) lost every single game in the series. It was so bad that I thought about calling Pat to see if there was an opt-out clause in our verbal contract.
She reminded me: “It’s for our game.” That was Pat — always thinking about our game.
That’s one of the reasons it will be so difficult to fathom a basketball season without Pat Summitt. That’s one of the reasons it’s so difficult to come to grips with how little we know about Alzheimer’s, which took her away too soon Tuesday at age 64.
A caring mentor
As I think back on the early days of women’s basketball, I think about how much of it is defined by not only Pat’s success but her presence. Most people only saw Pat on the sideline. Tough, demanding and relentless. And she was most definitely all of those things.
But that wasn’t all she was. Her friends and players also knew a loving, gentle — yes, gentle — kind and compassionate soul who loved to laugh and entertain friends at her house. She was a woman who cared deeply about family and the young women she mentored and coached.
One of my fondest memories was when she came to Austin to speak at my statue ceremony in 2012. Afterward, we enjoyed some food and drinks with old coaching buddies at Scholz Garten, the oldest and one of the most beloved sports bars in Austin.
As we sat there on that beautiful day in the fall, I remember thinking how fitting it was that we were sitting in a setting much like the one from 30 years before, talking about the game we loved, how much it had grown, and how fortunate we were to be a part of something special. Jody Conradt was the Texas women’s basketball coach from 1976-2007 and is a member of the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. She is currently a special assistant in the UT athletic department.