Pat Summitt statue unveiled in Clarksville
Pat Head Summitt made it to the head of her field as one of the top coaches in American sports — male or female, college or professional. Along the way, she elevated women’s basketball for athletes and aspiring girls across the country.
For all that acclaim, Summitt has been recognized with statues in Knoxville at the University of Tennessee Pat Summitt Plaza, and at UT-Martin, where she is shown as a young player. But not in her hometown of Clarksville. Until now. On Friday, the Pat Head Summitt Legacy Plaza was unveiled in Liberty Park, where another Clarksville Olympic gold-medal winner, Wilma Rudolph, is also recognized.
“A prime objective of all of this was to honor her right here locally,” said Richard V. Stevens, chairman of the Pat Head Summitt Project Committee and former Leaf-Chronicle editor, speaking at the unveiling event. “And you’ll notice from the start and all along the way, we emphasized the ‘Head’ in the Pat Head Summitt Legacy Plaza.”
Speaking for the Head family was her niece, Dana Gossett, who said her aunt started out as a “tough little farm girl” from Middle Tennessee. She thanked the large crowd who turned out to honor Pat, whom she noted was born and laid to rest in Montgomery County.
Also at the unveiling event were several members of the Head family, including her mother, Hazel Head, and her brother, former state Rep. Tommy Head.
“Everything has been so nice,” Hazel Head said after the event. “I appreciate everyone in Clarksville for remembering Pat. She was a special girl, and I love all my children. They’ve done so much.”
First, she was Trish
Summit coached the U.S. women’s basketball team to Olympic gold in the 1984 Games (having already taken a silver medal as a player on the 1976 team). At the University of Tennessee, she became college basketball’s winningest coach of all time, finishing her career with 1,098 wins.
But before all that, she was Patricia Sue Head, born June 14, 1952, to Richard and Hazel Head. She grew up on the family’s farm on the Montgomery County/Cheatham County line and went to Fredonia Elementary School in Clarksville, where friends knew her as “Trish.”
Sports led her away from Clarksville. There were no women’s basketball programs in Montgomery County, so she transferred to Cheatham County High School, where she was a standout player. From there, she went to UT-Martin, then on to the Olympics and her 38 years as the Lady Vols coach.
That complete history is recounted in a series of panels surrounding the statue at the new Legacy Plaza.
“As her birthplace, Clarksville-Montgomery County has a unique opportunity, over and above any other city or county, to capture the comprehensive story of Coach Summitt,” park architect Bradley Martin III of Lyle Cook Martin Architects in Clarksville.
A statue for Pat
In 2013, just a year after Summit’s 2012 retirement as University of Tennessee women’s basketball coach due to the onset of Alzheimer’s disease, a group of UT fans, Leaf-Chronicle editors and community leaders started discussions about honoring Summitt in some way. The plan was to commission a statue and park.
Following Summit’s death from Alzheimer’s disease in June 2016 at the age of 64, the project picked up more importance.
“Pat Head Summit was so much more than a sports figure. She was an American cultural icon whose leadership reshaped the sports landscape for women,” Stevens said.
“Her success pulled our society forward, and she bent the curve of history toward justice and equality for women athletes. She blazed a trail that led to more opportunities for women, more scholarships, better facilities, more well-paid women coaches and ultimately a successful women’s basketball league. That’s quite a legacy.”
About the park
The statue’s sculptor was Brett Grill, whose works can be found in public and private collections at universities, museums and public art settings across the nation. His studio is in Grand Rapids, Mich., according to a city of Clarksville news release.
“Our sculpture hopes to embody her passion and fire,” Grill said in the release. “She was a rare talent, quickly ascending to the highest reaches of her field, which she dominated throughout her career.
“It’s fitting that she is now enshrined permanently in bronze in her hometown.”
Frank Lott, a principal of BLF Marketing, Clarksville, researched and collected artwork to compose four panels with information spanning Summitt’s life and accomplishments.
“Early on, our project theme became ‘Honoring a Champion. Inspiring Greatness,’” Lott said. “I think those words capture our desire to create a lasting tribute to Coach Summitt and a way to share her story to inspire future generations.”
Jimmy Settle contributed to this report. Reach Chris Smith at chrissmith @theleafchronicle.com, 931-245-0282 or on Twitter @cssmithwrites.