Coaches, players, leaders and family speak fondly of Pat Summitt

In this Feb. 5, 2009, file photo, Tennessee coach Pat Summitt has confetti dumped on her by players Alicia Manning (15) and Alex Fuller (2) after the Lady Vols defeated Georgia 73-43 in an NCAA college basketball game in Knoxville, Tenn., earning Summitt her 1,000th career coaching victory.  (AP Photo/Wade Payne, File)
In this Feb. 5, 2009, file photo, Tennessee coach Pat Summitt has confetti dumped on her by players Alicia Manning (15) and Alex Fuller (2) after the Lady Vols defeated Georgia 73-43 in an NCAA college basketball game in Knoxville, Tenn., earning Summitt her 1,000th career coaching victory. (AP Photo/Wade Payne, File)

Read more about Pat Summitt

"When you think of all the great coaches in all sports, Pat Summitt is at the top of that list. As a coach, I stand in awe of Pat and what she accomplished on and off the court. She demanded excellence and her teams played to her personality.

"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."

- Tennessee football coach Butch Jones

***

"She was the defining figure of the game of women's basketball. Lots of people coach the game. But very few get to define the game."

- Connecticut women's basketball coach Geno Auriemma, whose Huskies dueled 22 times in 12 seasons with Summitt's Lady Vols in games that elevated the profile of the women's college game

***

"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.

"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."

- Former Tennessee and retired NFL quarterback Peyton Manning

***

"To learn from her and to be around here on a daily basis when you're still so impressionable, you were just lucky. You were lucky to be influenced by her and to have felt her impact. It forever changes you."

- Former Tennessee point guard Kara Lawson (1999-2003)

***

"Pat was the one voice in women's basketball that everyone respected. She only cared about what was good for the game and how we could make it better. She raised the bar for women and showed us what it meant to be a leader, not just in coaching but in life. We have lost an icon in our game."

- Notre Dame women's basketball coach Muffet McGraw

***

"She was the standard-setter here."

- Former championship-winning Tennessee football coach Phillip Fulmer

***

"We have lost one of the greatest Tennesseans of all time."

- Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam

***

"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

***

"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. There will never be another Pat Summitt."

- Former UT women's Athletic Director Joan Cronan

***

"My heart is broken. Pat and I shared a very special, special bond that will never be broken."

- Longtime Summitt assistant and current Lady Vols basketball head coach Holly Warlick

***

"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

***

"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.)

***

"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

***

"It motivated you to your highest level as a coach in your preparation and how you perceived the games. Even though you want to keep it all the same, but it was different with Pat. You did want to beat her, because you would feel like you had beaten the best."

- ESPN analyst Nell Fortner, formerly the coach of the U.S. national team (1997-2000) and Auburn (2004-2012), on coaching against Summitt

***

"I've been a fan of hers and the way she so passionately and profoundly led our game. I can't think of anyone whose footsteps I would want to follow other than hers. She has passed the torch to all who coach; it's now our turn to make her proud."

- South Carolina women's basketball coach Dawn Staley

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.

Upcoming Events