Legendary coach Summitt dies at 64
In 38 years at Tennessee, ‘global icon’ led charge to put women’s basketball on map
Pat Summitt was the winningest coach in Division I college basketball history, lifting the women’s game to national prominence during her 38-year career at Tennessee.
Pat Summitt, the steely-eyed women’s basketball coach with an intolerance of anything short of excellence, was remembered Tuesday as a national treasure and enduring role model.
Summitt, who led Tennessee to eight national championships, died early Tuesday morning at age 64 after a five-year battle with early-onset Al- zheimer’s disease.
Tennessee vice chancellor and athletic director Dave Hart called her “synonymous with Tennessee” and “a global icon who transcended sports and spent her entire life making a difference in other people’s lives.”
Those sentiments were echoed on social media and TV and radio by former peers and rivals alike.
Said Connecticut women’s coach Geno Auriemma on ESPN: “She was the defining figure of the game of women’s basketball. A lot of people coach the game, but very few people get to define the game.”
Diagnosed in spring 2011 at age 58, Summitt coached one more season before stepping down in April 2012, assuming the title of “head coach emeritus.” Since then, she had stayed largely out of the public eye as her condition progressed.
As news of Summitt’s worsening condition spread among those closest to her, former players, including Candace Parker, Tamika Catchings, Michelle Marciniak and Nikki Caldwell, traveled to Knoxville, Tenn., to visit one last time.
“She is a legend and has touched so
many lives,” said Parker, who plays for the WNBA’s Los Angeles Sparks. “She changes the individual.”
Summitt was born Patricia Sue Head on June 14, 1952, in Clarksville, Tenn. The fourth of five children, she slept in a baby bed until she was 6. Her farmer father, Richard Head, was a disciplinarian who, she recalled, admonished his children that “cows don’t take a day off.”
During the day, she joined her three older brothers in baling hay and chopping tobacco. At night, she played basketball against her brothers and neighbors.
“I was the only girl,” Summitt once said. “They beat me up, but it made me tougher.”
Summitt attended Tennessee-Martin and, upon graduating in 1974 after a standout basketball career, became coach at Tennessee, where at 22 she was barely older than her players. In football country, she made $250 a month to coach basketball and attend grad school. She held a doughnut sale to help pay for the team uniforms, which she washed herself.
Her achievements as a coach unfolded in step with Title IX, the pioneering 1972 law guaranteeing women equal opportunity in athletics and education. Her 1,098 victories at Tennessee (against 208 losses) are more than those of any other coach, man or woman, in NCAA Division I sports. She coached 20 AllAmericans and spawned a pipeline of more than 70 former players and assistants who went on to coach basketball in the high school, college and pro ranks.
On the international stage, she was the first U.S. Olympian to win medals as both a player (silver, 1976) and coach (gold, 1984).
As the specifics of her coaching career faded from memory because of her illness, Summitt retained the essence of her achievement and her bond with four decades of players.
“My memories are not so much made up of information, but rather of episodes and engagements with the people I love,” Summitt wrote in her 2013 biography “Sum it Up,” the last of three books co-written with Washington Post columnist Sally Jenkins. “The things I struggle with — times, dates, schedules — are things you could as easily read on a digital watch or a calendar. But people and emotions are engraved in me.”