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Callie Andrews

Biography on Pat Summitt

Intro to Sport Management

Professor Samborowski

November 2015
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Womens college basketball has been changed and touched tremendously by a woman

called Patricia Sue Summitt. Pat for short, born on June 14th, 1952 in the state of Tennessee,

Pat Summitt grew up as a small town farm girl of whom since her childhood developed

intelligence, tough love, and a willingness to accomplish anything she set her mind to. Summitt

has been the face of womens basketball ever since she started playing pick-up basketball in a

make-shift court at her familys farm with her older brothers ever since she was a young girl. She

has been the face of womens basketball since then because she was a girl playing with boys and

that was something many frowned upon back then. Her tomboy attitude and growing up with a

strict, stern father who only allowed play when the work on the farm was finished, allowed her to

overcome what other people thought about girls playing basketball and she did what she loved to

do. Pat grew up in a small town in Tennessee in Montgomery County. She then was the reason

for her families move to Henrietta when the high school she was supposed to attend didnt have a

girls basketball team because of budgeting. Pats father then bought a small convenience store

and packed up and moved to Henrietta where Pat could play basketball.

Back in the late 1950s early 1960s girls/womens basketball was looked at as simply a

hobby where it was only a half-court game and played for not as long as a regular mans game.

People thought that women would get hurt playing a full length game and that they would be too

fatigued to run up and down the court. Pat had to play this style of game for her whole high

school career. When Pat reached college she had to do it all on her own. Pat went to University

of Tennessee-Martin. A small school where womens basketball was just simply a small club

sport really. The mens team had all the athletic funding for uniforms, recruits and scholarships.

When Pat went to college there was no funding for womens athletics not even for a

scholarships. When Pat started her college career it was for the UT-Martin team where not a lot
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of girls had a lot of basketball skills and Pat did exceptionally well especially being the broad

tomboy female that she was. Pat was so had working and determined as a young collegiate

athlete even though her team had close to nothing, for their uniforms or funding for

transportation. Pat always worked hard because if she didnt then she knew that she would most

likely hear it from her father. Soon enough womans college basketball started to change

drastically and it was when Pat Summitt and her team started dominating the sport in the 1970s.

Pats first season the team went 16-2. Then in 1972, womens college basketball created an

association for collegiate womens athletics, womens basketball would be incorporated in the

1976 Olympics and finally womens college basketball started playing full court, five on five

games. This was just a dream experience for Pat.

Pats biggest accomplishment as a young collegiate player was being invited to the

Olympic trials to play for the U.S womens basketball team. Pats collegiate career ended in 1974

during her senior season when she suffered from an ACL tear. Pat Summitt was devastated

because she didnt know if she would be able to play in the 1976 Olympics. When Pat was doing

rehab for her knee and working effortlessly to make it to the Olympics she got a job offer to

become the head coach at the University of Tennessee at age 22. This was a huge opportunity for

Pat and this was the foundation for one of the best to ever coach the game. Pat Summitt wasnt

just a coach but she was a mentor, a mother, a drill sergeant, and someone who changed and

influenced the game of womens college basketball. Right when Pat started coaching at the

University of Tennessee she knew she had a lot of work to do. With close to no funding for her

team, awful uniforms, and being only a year older than one of the oldest on her team Pat took on

head coach in full strides. Determined to win, Pats coaching was strong and effortless.
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As a head coach at University of Tennessee Pats dream was to sell out their home

stadium and to get a national championship. Pat coached all kinds of players and most even

thought of her as a mom away from home even though she was one of the hardest coaches to

play for. Pat even made sure that her girls were okay even outside of basketball and taught

important life lessons. One of Pats former players and the last senior player she had Isabelle

Harris tore her ACL which kept her from playing her senior season at the University of

Tennessee and remembered how Pat was there for her on her bedside and took the time to watch

some television with her. It was crazy to me because [everyone] just looks up to her so much

and [for her] to take time with everything she is going through (Mandell et al., 2015). Pat cared

for all of her players even when she wasnt even coaching anymore.

On a Wednesday in April of 2012, Pat Sue Summitt stepped down from coaching

basketball. She passed down the teams of 38 years which she won 8 national championships

(passing the legend John Wooden), won 1,098 games and only lost 208, and coached 161 girls of

whom respected her greatly. Pat Summitt stepped down from coaching because she was

diagnosed with early onset Alzheimers disease. A disease that eats at the brain and causes a loss

of memory. Though Pat Summitt slowly started to lose her memory on small things like where

her keys were Pat is still able today to remember all 161 players that she coached at the

University of Tennessee and their jersey numbers and their style of play. Pat is able to remember

her championships and how one night she made her team run sprints after they got home late

from a tough loss against Vanderbilt. She is still able to remember how she used to coach and

how it made some girls feel whether they were furious at her one moment for yelling at them to

respecting her and loving her the next. She remembers all her players and all the moments of

intense games or the feeling of playing for the U.S in the Olympics because those were moments
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that changed her life. The things I struggle with- times, dates, schedules- are things you could as

easily read on a digital watch or calendar. But people and emotions are engraved in me. What

this tells me is that facts are only the smallest components of memory. They are elements, but

nothing close to the whole (Summitt & Jenkins, n.d.).

To raise the question of who changed womens college basketball, the name most people

will say is Pat Summitt. To go 38 years of coaching womens basketball and also playing her

entire life, Summitt basically lived on a basketball court and with a ball in her hands. Pat

Summitt definitely changed the game of womens college basketball and she influenced a nation

full of people on her journey as well. When Pat Summitt was affected by Alzheimers disease so

was an entire nation of basketball fans. Summitt did incredible things for the game. Summitt

fulfilled her dream of selling out a home crowd, her team was part of an NCAA tournament

something she wasnt able to participate in when she played because womens basketball wasnt

competitive. She spent so much time in womens basketball that as the game evolved she went

along with it and a lot of people thank her for the evolution. Athletic director from Pats old

college UT-Martin said it best I kind of feel lost. Pat put a face to women's basketball in this

country. Pat Summitt was the face of UT. And now they're going to miss her

(GamesChalkEnduranceCFLESPYS, Olympics, FB, BB & Games, 2015).

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References

GamesChalkEnduranceCFLESPYS, &., Olympics, S., FB, R., BB, R., & Games, X.

(2015). Tennessee's Pat Summitt changed the game. ESPN.com. Retrieved 22

November 2015, from http://espn.go.com/ncw/story/_/id/7830262/tennessee-coach-

pat-summitt-changed-game

Mandell, N., Mandell, N., Tsuji, A., Litman, L., Litman, L., & Tsuji, A. et al. (2015).

Isabelle Harrison takes life lessons from Pat Summitt to the WNBA. For The Win.

Retrieved 22 November 2015, from http://ftw.usatoday.com/2015/04/isabelle-

harrison-takes-life-lessons-from-pat-summitt-to-the-wnba

Summitt, P., & Jenkins, S. Sum it up.