Photo Gallery
Art Walk @ Argenta Arts District — 07.15
The monthly art walk features live music, local artists and food in the Argenta Arts District. Stores and shops stay open later to accommodate the public.
- Jan. 10, 1975
- Summitt's first career win actually came in her second game against Middle Tennessee State - after the Lady Vols lost their season opener to Mercer. She was 22 years old.
- Jan. 13, 1979
- The fourth-ranked Lady Vols won 79-66 at No. 8 North Carolina State to claim Summitt's 100th victory at the helm.
- Dec. 3, 1982
- Summitt's 200th victory came against St. John's in the fourth game of the 1982-83 season.
- Jan. 4, 1987
- The top-ranked Lady Vols beat North Carolina for Summitt's 300th win en route to her first national championship.
- March 29, 1987
- It took Summitt 13 seasons and one national-championship game defeat in 1984 to claim her first title. The Lady Vols routed Louisiana Tech 67-44 in Austin, Texas. Said Summitt after the game: "Well, the monkey's off my back."
- April 2, 1989
- All-American Bridgette Gordon poured in 27 points to lead the Lady Vols past Auburn in Tacoma, Wash., for Summitt's second national championship.
- Jan. 25, 1990
- A one-point win at No. 15 South Carolina was Summitt's 400th win.
- March 31, 1991
- Tennessee's third title in five years came in overtime against Virginia, whose star was current South Carolina coach Dawn Staley, courtesy of Dena Head's record 28 points in New Orleans.
- Nov. 23, 1993
- Tennessee opened a two-loss season that would end in a title-game defeat to Louisiana Tech with Summitt's 500th victory, 80-45 against Ohio State.
- March 31, 1996
- After downing rival UConn in overtime in the national semifinal, the Lady Vols breezed past Georgia in Charlotte to win Summitt her fourth title.
- Nov. 23, 1996
- Summitt's 600th win, 83-68 against Marquette, came as the Lady Vols embarked on a run that would bring three straight national titles.
- March 30, 1997
- Summitt's fifth championship team lost 10 regular-season games before racing through the NCAA tournament and taking out Old Dominion in the title game behind Chamique Holdsclaw's 24 points in Cincinnati. "Of all of our runs to a championship, this one is really the most unexpected," Summitt said. "It came from a team with tremendous heart and desire."
- March 29, 1998
- Tennessee completed a perfect 39-0 season by dismantling Louisiana Tech in the title game in Kansas City. The Lady Vols set the record for the most wins by a women's team in a single season and became the first program to win three straight national championships. The dynamic trio of Holdsclaw, Tamika Catchings and Semeka Randall combined for 62 points and 25 rebounds in the title game.
- Dec. 5, 1999
- The Lady Vols rolled Wisconsin on the road for Summitt's 700th win.
- Oct. 13, 2000
- Summitt was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame - the first time she was eligible for the ballot - as part of a class that included former NBA stars Isiah Thomas and Bob McAdoo. Named the Naismith Coach of the Century in April of that year, Summitt was the fourth women's basketball coach to be inducted. She was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame as part of its inaugural class the previous year.
- Feb. 1, 2001
- Summitt's 750th win came when the Lady Vols beat UConn 92-88 in a top-five clash in Knoxville. The rivalry became the biggest in women's hoops in the early 2000s, with Tennessee winning nine of the 22 meetings. The two haven't played since the fourth-ranked Lady Vols beat the fifth-ranked Huskies 70-64 on the road on Jan. 6, 2007.
- March 25, 2002
- In a season that included her 300th win against a ranked opponent and the 1,000th game of her coaching career, Summitt reaches her 13th Final Four (surpassing legendary UCLA coach John Wooden) and wins her 788th game (matching Texas coach Jody Conradt for the most among women's basketball coaches) when the Lady Vols beat Vanderbilt in the Elite Eight.
- Jan. 14, 2003
- The Lady Vols beat DePaul for Summitt's 800th win. She's the first women's coach and first female to reach that mark. And she only needed 961 games to get there, a record for any college coach.
- March 22, 2005
- In a second-round NCAA tournament win against Purdue, Summitt notches her 880th victory, surpassing North Carolina men's coach Dean Smith as the winningest coach in college basketball history. The court at Thompson-Boling Arena is named "The Summitt" in her honor later that week.
- Jan. 19, 2006
- Summitt joins Conradt and long-time Indiana men's coach Bobby Knight in the 900-win club when the Lady Vols dispatch Vanderbilt.
- April 3, 2007
- The relentless defensive energy and rebounding emphasis that became staples of Summitt's teams were on full display in Cleveland as the Lady Vols grabbed 24 offensive rebounds and forced 18 turnovers to beat Rutgers. Tennessee trailed by 12 points with eight minutes before rallying to win the program's seventh title.
- April 8, 2008
- Summitt won her unprecedented eighth and final national championship. Playing with a dislocated shoulder, Candace Parker scored 17 points and pulled down nine rebounds against Stanford in Tampa to finish her illustrious career with back-to-back titles.
- Feb. 5, 2009
- The Lady Vols beat Georgia by 30 points to deliver Summitt her 1,000th career win, a plateau reached by no other coach until Duke men's coach Mike Krzyzewski in 2015.
- Aug. 23, 2011
- Summitt reveals she has been diagnosed with early onset dementia, Alzheimer's type, at the age of 59.
- March 4, 2012
- Glory Johnson, one of five seniors on Summitt's final team, scored 20 points and 11 rebounds to lead the Lady Vols past LSU in the SEC tournament title game and give Summitt her 16th tournament crown to pair with 16 regular-season championships.
- March 26, 2012
- Two days after the final win of her career in the Sweet 16, Summitt loses her final game as top-ranked Baylor routs the Lady Vols in the Elite Eight.
- April 18, 2012
- Summitt's retirement after 38 seasons is announced, though she will remain in a head coach emeritus role with the Lady Vols. Summitt finishes her career with 1,098 wins and just 208 losses.
- April 19, 2012
- It's announced that Summitt is a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the country's highest civilian honor. She receives the honor from Barack Obama at the White House the following month.
- November 22, 2013
- The University of Tennessee unveiled a statue, measuring 8-feet, 7-inches, of Summitt on campus, across the street from Thompson-Boling Arena. Said Summitt, moments after the unveiling, "I just want everybody to know that for me, today, it's not about me. It's about everyone out here that loves the University of Tennessee. I want everybody to know how much I appreciate what's happened here today."
Summitt's year-by-year record
1974-75: 16-8 1975-76: 16-11 1976-77: 28-5 (AIAW semifinals) 1977-78: 27-4 (AIAW regional first round) 1978-79: 30-9 (AIAW semifinals) 1979-80: 33-5 (AIAW runner-up) 1980-81: 25-6 (AIAW runner-up) 1981-82: 22-10 (NCAA semifinals) 1982-83: 25-8 (NCAA regional final) 1983-84: 23-10 (NCAA runner-up) 1984-85: 22-10 (NCAA regional semifinal) 1985-86: 24-10 (NCAA semifinal) 1986-87: 28-6 (NCAA champion) 1987-88: 31-3 (NCAA semifinal) 1988-89: 35-2 (NCAA champion) 1989-90: 27-6 (NCAA regional final) 1990-91: 30-5 (NCAA champion) 1991-92: 28-3 (NCAA regional semifinal) 1992-93: 29-3 (NCAA regional final) 1993-94: 31-2 (NCAA regional semifinal) 1994-95: 34-3 (NCAA runner-up) 1995-96: 32-4 (NCAA champion) 1996-97: 29-10 (NCAA champion) 1997-98: 39-0 (NCAA champion) 1998-99: 31-3 (NCAA regional final) 1999-2000: 33-4 (NCAA runner-up) 2000-01: 31-3 (NCAA regional semifinal) 2001-02: 29-5 (NCAA semifinal) 2002-03: 33-5 (NCAA runner-up) 2003-04: 31-4 (NCAA runner-up) 2004-05: 30-5 (NCAA champion) 2005-06: 31-5 (NCAA regional final) 2006-07: 34-3 (NCAA champion) 2007-08: 36-2 (NCAA champion) 2008-09: 22-11 (NCAA first round) 2009-10: 32-3 (NCAA regional semifinal) 2010-11: 34-3 (NCAA regional final) 2011-12: 27-9 (NCAA regional final)
In her own words: Memorable Pat Summitt quotes
"I won 1,098 games, and eight national championships, and coached in four different decades. But what I see are not the numbers. I see their faces." "Here's how I'm going to beat you. I'm going to outwork you. That's it. That's all there is to it." "You can't always be the most talented person in the room. But you can be the most competitive." "Players don't care how much you know until they know how much you care." "When you grow up on a dairy farm, cows don't take a day off. So you work every day and my dad always said, 'No one can outwork you.'" "We do not win championships with girls. We win with competitors" "If I ain't happy, nobody's happy." "Teamwork is what makes common people capable of uncommon results." "I remember every player - every single one - who wore the Tennessee orange, a shade that our rivals hate, a bold, aggravating color that you can usually find on a roadside crew, 'or in a correctional institution,' as my friend Wendy Larry jokes. But to us the color is a flag of pride, because it identifies us as Lady Vols and therefore as women of an unmistakable type. Fighters. I remember how many of them fought for a better life for themselves. I just met them halfway." "Individual success is a myth. No one succeeds all by herself." "There is nothing wrong with having competitive instincts. They are survival instincts." "Silence is a form of communication, too. Sometimes less is more." "I want to continue to do is to help these young women be successful. You don't just say goodbye at the end of their playing careers and end it there." "The absolute heart of loyalty is to value those people who tell you the truth, not just those people who tell you what you want to hear. In fact, you should value them most. Because they have paid you the compliment of leveling with you and assuming you can handle it." "I'm not sure, when it got right down to it, I would have ever left Tennessee. It's hard to leave home." "You win in life with people." "You can't pick and choose the days that you feel like being responsible. It's not something that disappears when you're tired." "If I'm not leading by example, then I'm not doing the right thing. And I want to always do the right thing." "Most people get excited about games, but I've got to be excited about practice, because that's my classroom." "There is always someone better than you. Whatever it is that you do for a living, chances are, you will run into a situation in which you are not as talented as the person next to you. That's when being a competitor can make a difference in your fortunes." "Admit to and make yourself accountable for mistakes. How can you improve if you're never wrong?" "Discipline helps you finish a job, and finishing is what separates excellent work from average work." "Attitude is a choice. What you think you can do, whether positive or negative, confident or scared, will most likely happen."
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.