Nobody walked off a college basketball court victorious more times than Tennessee's Pat Summitt.
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Family, friends, co-workers remember Pat
"We have lost one of the greatest Tennesseans of all time." - Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam "Pat Summitt was many things to many people. Pat was a great person, loving mother, passionate coach, and loyal friend. We shared a lot of years working together and spreading the word about Tennessee Athletics. Her legacy as a basketball coach is iconic, but her greatest legacy may well be through The Pat Summitt Foundation and her role in leading the battle against Alzheimer's." - Former UT football coach Phil Fulmer, whose mother suffers from Alzheimer's "Coach Summitt saved her best work for her final opponent, staring down early onset dementia as only she could, courageously sharing her battle with the public so that millions of people could join her huddle and work as a team towards finding a cure for such a terrible disease. We honor her legacy by carrying the fight forward and finishing her greatest work." - University of Tennessee at Chattanooga athletic director David Blackburn, who worked with Summitt for more than two decades in his various roles within the UT athletic department "It would have been a great experience to play for her. She could have coached any team, any sport, men's or women's. It wouldn't have mattered because Pat could flat out coach. I will miss her dearly, and I am honored to call her my friend." - UT football legend Peyton Manning "She'll be remembered as the all-time winningest D-1 basketball coach in NCAA history, but she was more than a coach to so many – she was a hero and a mentor, especially to me, her family, her friends, her Tennessee Lady Volunteer staff and the Lady Vol student-athletes she coached during her 38-year tenure." - Tyler Summitt, Pat's son "I worked with Pat for over 30 years. People would refer to me as her boss and I always remarked, 'Pat Summitt has no boss.' She was the ultimate leader who led by example with strength, character and integrity but also with care. The legacy she leaves is immense. Her players, who all have college degrees, have been enriched by her teaching. They are coaches, professors, television personalities, businesswomen, all now making a difference in their world because of Pat Summitt. "There will never be another Pat Summitt. She belongs to the ages now and we are sad but so fortunate to have called her a colleague and friend." - Former UT women's Athletic Director Joan Cronan "Pat did far more than win eight national championships: she changed the lives of the young women she coached, she showed us the measure of a real champion and her fight against Alzheimer's set an example for us all. It's hard for people outside Tennessee to understand just how much Pat Summitt became a part of the lives of so many citizens in our state." - U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) "It is a very sad day on Rocky Top, Volunteers across the world are mourning the loss of the legendary Pat Summitt." - UT Chancellor Dr. Jimmy Cheek "Basketball has lost a legend, and Tennessee has lost one of its most beloved daughters. I join all Tennesseans today in celebrating her life and extend my thoughts and prayers to her son, Tyler, the Lady Vol family, and all those who were touched by her remarkable life." - U.S. Senator (R-Tenn.) and former Chattanooga mayor Bob Corker "My heart is broken. Pat and I shared a very special, special bond that will never be broken." - Holly Warlick "It was about more than basketball for her, it was about life. She wanted every player that left the program to be prepared for the next stage of their life. Every player received a degree, and that was as important to her as any win on the court. She wouldn't settle for anything but the best effort on the court and in the classroom." - UT football coach Butch Jones "To the world, she was an icon. To women's basketball, she was a pioneering legend. To the University of Tennessee, she will always be our beloved hero. Pat Summitt has left us far too soon." - UT president Joe DiPietro
Legendary University of Tennessee women's basketball coach Pat Summitt has died after a five-year battle with Alzheimer's. She was 64.
In a statement released by the university at 6:11 a.m., her son Tyler Summitt said, "It is with tremendous sadness that I announce the passing of my mother, Patricia Sue Head Summitt. She died peacefully this morning at Sherrill Hill Senior Living in Knoxville surrounded by those who loved her most.
"Since 2011, my mother has battled her toughest opponent, early onset dementia, 'Alzheimer's Type,' and she did so with bravely fierce determination just as she did with every opponent she ever faced. Even though it's incredibly difficult to come to terms that she is no longer with us, we can all find peace in knowing she no longer carries the heavy burden of this disease."
Said Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam in a statement early today, "We have lost one of the greatest Tennesseans of all time."
Summitt first learned she had Alzheimer's in the summer of 2011. With the help of current Lady Vols coach Holly Warlick, she coached the 2011-2012 season, then retired to fully focus her attention on battling her disease.
That courage and commitment has resulted in the Pat Summitt Foundation, which has already raised millions of dollars to fight Alzheimer's, as well as partnering with the UT Medical Center to build the Pat Summitt Alzheimer's Clinic to help the 160,000 Tennesseans who are expected to struggle with the disease by 2025.
Said former UT football coach Phil Fulmer, whose mother suffers from Alzheimer's: "Pat Summitt was many things to many people. Pat was a great person, loving mother, passionate coach, and loyal friend. We shared a lot of years working together and spreading the word about Tennessee Athletics. Her legacy as a basketball coach is iconic, but her greatest legacy may well be through The Pat Summitt Foundation and her role in leading the battle against Alzheimer's."
Added University of Tennessee at Chattanooga athletic director David Blackburn, who worked with Summitt for more than two decades in his various roles within the Big Orange athletic department: "Coach Summitt saved her best work for her final opponent, staring down early onset dementia as only she could, courageously sharing her battle with the public so that millions of people could join her huddle and work as a team towards finding a cure for such a terrible disease. We honor her legacy by carrying the fight forward and finishing her greatest work."
Yet her greatest work in basketball came as the Lady Vols head coach from from 1974 to 2012, where she won 1,098 games - the most victories by either a men's or women's coach at the Division I level - and eight national championships, including three straight from 1996 to 1998. That total is surpassed only by the 11 titles won by UConn coach Geno Auriemma.
She was named the Naismith Basketball Coach of the Century in 2000, and The Sporting News ranked her at No. 11 on its list of the 50 Greatest Coaches of All Time for all sports. She was the only woman to make the list. The court inside UT's Thompson-Boling Arena is named "The Summitt" in her honor. The university erected a bronze statue of Summitt on campus in 2013. The Women's Basketball Hall of Fame is located in Knoxville because of Summitt, who was a charter member.
Said all-time UT football great Peyton Manning in a Tuesday morning statement: "It would have been a great experience to play for her. She could have coached any team, any sport, men's or women's. It wouldn't have mattered because Pat could flat out coach. I will miss her dearly, and I am honored to call her my friend."
Summitt was widely regarded as one of the toughest coaches in college basketball history, men's or women's, and was well known for giving her players an icy stare in response to poor play.
Yet despite that stare being at least partly responsible for her 16 Southeastern Conference regular-season titles and 16 SEC tournament titles, the Lady Vols' inclusion in every NCAA tournament from 1982 until her retirement, or her 18 Final Four berths, it was her players that Summitt valued most, making sure all 161 of them graduated.
"You win in life with people," she liked to say.
To that end, Tyler noted in his statement: "She'll be remembered as the all-time winningest D-1 basketball coach in NCAA history, but she was more than a coach to so many – she was a hero and a mentor, especially to me, her family, her friends, her Tennessee Lady Volunteer staff and the Lady Vol student-athletes she coached during her 38-year tenure."
That tenure ended on April 18, 2012, when Summitt officially became head coach emeritus and Warlick was named her successor.
Yet as former UT women's AD Joan Cronan said earlier today in her statement: "I worked with Pat for over 30 years. People would refer to me as her boss and I always remarked, 'Pat Summitt has no boss.' She was the ultimate leader who led by example with strength, character and integrity but also with care. The legacy she leaves is immense. Her players, who all have college degrees, have been enriched by her teaching. They are coaches, professors, television personalities, businesswomen, all now making a difference in their world because of Pat Summitt."
It wasn't just her players, however. As Manning noted of his decision to stay for his senior season rather than depart for the NFL draft after his junior year: "She was one of the people I consulted with following my junior year when I was deciding whether to turn pro early or stay in college. She gave me some very valuable advice during that time."
Summitt's final five years benefitted far more than the UT athletic family, however.
"Pat did far more than win eight national championships: she changed the lives of the young women she coached, she showed us the measure of a real champion and her fight against Alzheimer's set an example for us all," noted U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) in a statement. "It's hard for people outside Tennessee to understand just how much Pat Summitt became a part of the lives of so many citizens in our state."
A native of Clarksville, Tenn., Summitt was a graduate of UT-Martin, where she played basketball, but her family paid her tuition because there were no athletic scholarships for women at that time. She was a co-captain on the first U.S. women's national basketball team in 1976, winning a silver medal, and eight years later she coached the women's national team to an Olympic gold medal, becoming the first U.S. Olympian to medal as both an athlete and coach.
Just before the 1974–75 season, before women's college basketball was an NCAA-sanctioned sport, a 22-year-old Summitt became a graduate assistant at UT. She was named head coach of the Lady Vols when the previous coach quit suddenly. Her monthly coaching salary was $250, with responsibilities that included washing the players' uniforms. Four of her players were just one year younger than she was at the time.
In a February 2009 interview with Time Magazine, Summitt recalled her early coaching days, saying, "I had to drive the van, and one time, for a road game, we actually slept in the other team's gym the night before (a game). We had mats; we had our little sleeping bags."
To illustrate how much Summitt helped change the game over her career, she was earning $8,900 a year in 1976, when the University of Kentucky attempted to lure her from UT with a raise of $100 to $9,000. She declined, telling the Lexington Herald-Leader in 1998: "I'm not sure, when it got right down to it, I would have ever left Tennessee. It's hard to leave home."
She was 11 years removed from her first NCAA title at that point. She was weeks removed from her 1997-98 team finishing 39-0, with only three of those 39 opponents staying within 10 points of the Lady Vols on their way to an 18-point win over Louisiana Tech in the championship game.
She would coach 14 more years, win two more national championships and wind up earning more than $1 million a year, but within her home state she was always so much more than a basketball coach.
"It is a very sad day on Rocky Top, Volunteers across the world are mourning the loss of the legendary Pat Summitt," noted UT Chancellor Dr. Jimmy Cheek.
Said U.S. Senator (R-Tenn.) and former Chattanooga mayor Bob Corker: "Basketball has lost a legend, and Tennessee has lost one of its most beloved daughters. I join all Tennesseans today in celebrating her life and extend my thoughts and prayers to her son, Tyler, the Lady Vol family, and all those who were touched by her remarkable life."
Added Cronan: "There will never be another Pat Summitt. She belongs to the ages now and we are sad but so fortunate to have called her a colleague and friend."
Summitt is survived by her mother, Hazel Albright Head; son, Ross "Tyler" Summitt (AnDe); sister, Linda; brothers, Tommy (Deloris), Charles (Mitzi) and Kenneth (Debbie).
A private service and burial for family and friends will be held in Middle Tennessee. A public service to celebrate her life will take place at Thompson-Boling Arena, on the campus of the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. Details for the celebration of life will be shared at a later date.
Memorial gifts may be made to The Pat Summitt Foundation by visiting www.patsummitt.org/donate.
President Barack Obama on Pat Summitt
Nobody walked off a college basketball court victorious more times than Tennessee's Pat Summitt. 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. 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. 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. As Pat once said in recalling her achievements, "What I see are not the numbers. I see their faces." Pat learned early on that everyone should be treated the same. When she would play basketball against her older brothers in the family barn, they didn't treat her any differently and certainly didn't go easy on her. Later, her Hall of Fame career would tell the story of the historic progress toward equality in American athletics that she helped advance. Pat started playing college hoops before Title IX and started coaching before the NCAA recognized women's basketball as a sport. When she took the helm at Tennessee as a 22-year-old, she had to wash her players' uniforms; by the time Pat stepped down as the Lady Vols' head coach, her teams wore eight championship rings and had cut down nets in sold-out stadiums. Pat was a patriot who earned Olympic medals for America as a player and a coach, and I was honored to award her the Presidential Medal of Freedom. She was a proud Tennessean who, when she went into labor while on a recruiting visit, demanded the pilot return to Knoxville so her son could be born in her home state. And she was an inspiring fighter. Even after Alzheimer's started to soften her memory, and she began a public and brave fight against that terrible disease, Pat had the grace and perspective to remind us that "God doesn't take things away to be cruel. He takes things away to lighten us. He takes things away so we can fly." Michelle and I send our condolences to Pat Summitt's family – which includes her former players and fans on Rocky Top and across America.