Get involved
Anyone interested in becoming a part of the Pat Summitt Invitational as a golfer, sponsor or Toast Party participant should contact event coordinator Billy Buchanan at 423-667-5174, or email him at BillyBuchanan2@gmail.com.
Both prominent and poignant, the photograph has hung in Tennessee women's basketball coach Holly Warlick's office for almost three years.
"It's a picture of Pat handing me her whistle," Warlick said Friday as she recalled the moment Pat Summitt permanently handed her the Lady Vols coaching reins at the close of the 2011-12 season. "It doesn't seem like it was three years ago. It seems shorter."
One-thousand and ninety-eight days have come and gone since Summitt last stalked the Thompson-Boling sideline as UT's head coach following news she was battling Alzheimer's.
That she finished with 1,098 victories brings added symmetry to her return to the Boling Alley this afternoon to deliver a proper goodbye to her final recruiting class of Cierra Burdick, Ariel Massengale and the injured Isabelle Harrison, who'll all be honored on senior day prior to UT's game against Vanderbilt.
"I know it will mean a lot to her to be there and a lot to them to have her there," Warlick said. "Pat's still aware of things we need to do better. I'll talk to her after a game and she'll say, 'You need to box out better.' She's still very involved, and I just love being around her."
To help Alzheimer's patients everywhere remain very involved with their friends and loved ones, Summitt and her son Tyler formed the Pat Summitt Foundation, its mission, as stated on its website: "... to help find a cure for Alzheimer's so that one day no family has to hear that a loved one has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease."
But finding such a cure takes money, which is why Erlanger hospital, the Summitt Foundation and Lookout Mountain Golf Club are teaming up May 17-18 for the Pat Summitt Invitational benefiting the fight against Alzheimer's.
"The goal is to raise $100,000 or more for the foundation," event coordinator Billy Buchanan said. "We're off to a great start, but we want to finish strong."
It's certainly a strong lineup. A welcome party will take place that Sunday evening with former UT football coach Phillip Fulmer, UTC women's coach Jim Foster, former UT women's athletic director Joan Cronan and Warlick, among others, all slated to toast the Hall of Fame coach. The golf event is scheduled for Monday morning.
Said Summitt on Friday in a statement released through the foundation: "Tyler and I are grateful to the Chattanooga community for hosting an upcoming golf tournament to benefit The Pat Summitt Foundation. A special thanks to the planning committee for their efforts on our behalf and to my dear friends, Phillip Fulmer and John 'Thunder' Thornton, for chairing the inaugural event. We hope everyone will come out and enjoy the tournament at the Lookout Mountain Golf Club. Your support will go a long way in assisting those living with Alzheimer's disease and those who care daily for them."
Fulmer would have been on board as an honorary chairman because of his long friendship with Summitt alone.
"Pat's been a wonderful friend over the years," said the man who guided the Vols to the 1998 BCS national championship. "I've always had such deep respect and love for her and her family. But my mother's been diagnosed with Alzheimer's, so I've got an extra reason to do everything possible to beat this disease."
Jim Haslam, one of the Volunteer State's wealthiest, most powerful and most charity-minded men, is on the Summitt Foundation's board and a huge reason why the UT Medical Center is expected to open the Pat Summitt Alzheimer's Center by the end of the year.
"The mission of it is to race to find a cure to eliminate this dreaded disease that's hurt our iconic women's basketball coach so much," Haslam said last week. "We're (the foundation) making a $2.5 million committment over the next five years to the center."
Asked why the 84-year-old Haslam is so passionate about helping Summitt, he said, "Because of the respect I have for her and for all she's done for our school, our state and our country. It's my belief that the University of Tennessee has had two coaching icons in its history -- General Robert Neyland and Pat Summitt."
And Haslam played for Neyland.
But Haslam, Fulmer and Warlick are merely old, close friends. Tyler Summitt is her son, and the 24-year-old head coach of the Louisiana Tech women's team.
Looking back to that Feb. 26 afternoon three years ago -- when both the UT and Florida women wore "We Back Pat" T-shirts in pregame warm-ups, and Cronan noted her No. 1 goal was to "protect Pat, the person that we love" -- Tyler wrote in a late Friday evening email: "It's amazing to think back on our journey over the last three years. It seems like it has been a long time."
He also noted that he speaks to his mother at least once a day.
"From a young age, my mom set an example for me over the years as she talked with her parents once a day (and she still talks with her mom daily), so that her parents could be a big part of her life," Tyler wrote. "And as I have grown up, I carry on that family tradition. Mom and I talk at least once a day to share updates and encourage each other."
And much as she still offers coaching advice to Warlick, she also often reaches out to her son.
"My mom has been fortunate enough to attend several of my games in person," Tyler wrote. "And when she is unable to attend, she watches on television or online. Mom always has recommendations for me after a game, and I will take all the help I can get!"
We all need all the help we can get to fight Alzheimer's, which is now believed to be present in more than 5 million Americans. Roughly 500,000 of those are believed to fall into the 62-year-old Summitt's category of "early onset" because they're under the age of 65.
"As Mom and I have researched more and more about how to fight Alzheimer's disease," Tyler wrote, "we have realized how many people withdraw and battle the disease privately. For my mom, she felt it was important to battle publicly in order to bring national attention to the fight against the disease. I'm really proud of my mother's fierce courage. ... The foundation will carry on her legacy until Alzheimer's is defeated."
And no one in the history of basketball, men or women, has defeated more opponents than Pat Summitt.
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com