KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) – The spirit of former Tennessee coach Pat Summitt hovered over a Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame induction ceremony that included her longtime assistant coach and one of her greatest players.
Former Lady Vols star Chamique Holdsclaw and former Tennessee assistant Mickie DeMoss both referenced Summitt in their induction speeches. Summitt died in June 2016 at the age of 64, five years after announcing she had early-onset dementia, Alzheimer’s type.
Holdsclaw noted how Summitt told her players how her job was to raise strong independent women who would know how to fend for themselves after college.
“When you get out in the real world and you have things that hit you, that knock you down, you realize that it was my grandmother, it was that Coach Summitt speech, it was Mickie putting her arm around me and telling me it was going to be OK, that help you propel forward,” Holdsclaw said.
Holdsclaw and DeMoss were inducted along with former Colorado coach Ceal Barry, former New Jersey high school and college coach Rose Marie Battaglia, Connecticut assistant coach Chris Dailey and former players Katie Smith and Tina Thompson.