I Back Pat | 6/29

Callan McClurg
Jun 29, 2016
3 min read

STUDIO 171: June 28, 2016. If you're a fan of Women's Basketball, you will remember this date for as long as you live. The Women's Basketball world was shaken to it's core at 3:08am PDT when the news broke on social media announcing the passing of legendary Tennessee Lady Vols Head Coach Pat Summitt at the age of 64 following a five year battle with Alzheimer's Disease.

Pat Summitt took over at the helm of the Tennessee Women's Basketball program at the young age of 22 in 1974 and in a career that spanned 38 seasons which included Coach Summitt's teams capturing 8 National Championships (1987, 1989, 1991, 1996-1998, 2007-2008) and 16 South East Conference (SEC) Championships. Summitt also took home 15 Coach of the year honors (8 SEC + 7 NCAA), was named the Coach of the 20th century and in 2012 was honored by President Barack Obama with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

More important in my mind than an accolade Coach Summitt earned or received on the basketball court, is by far the greatest stat I've seen in my time as a sports announcer...161 FOR 161 = 100%...In her 38 seasons at UT, all 161 players who played under Coach Pat ALL graduated from the University of Tennessee with their degree. Anyone of her players would tell you how important attending class was under Coach Summitt, it was simple...If you didn't go to class, you didn't play. By adopting that policy, Summitt stressed the importance of not just education, but for being prepared for life after basketball by saying "If you don't have your education, what are you going to do with yourself?"

While Summitt made her legacy at Tennessee, her legacy has been and forever will be felt across the entire Women's Basketball world as an advocate, trail blazer and pioneer for the sport. Pat is well known for changing the branding and identity for every Girls High School and Women's College sports program when she adopted the Lady Vols team nickname, leading to many current high school and college sports team's adopting the "Lady" part of their team's identity.

Summitt then became the face of advocating for gender equality in athletics that included equal sized locker rooms for both the men's and women's teams, prime time home games, and fighting for equal television rights for Lady Vol and Women's Basketball games on National Television with CBS and ESPN. Women's Basketball was permanently put on the map when the two powerhouses of the game kicked off by the far the best rivalry in Men's or Women's Basketball, when Pat's Lady Vols would square off with Geno Auriemma and his Connecticut Huskies, two teams that would forever dominant the sport by increasing TV ratings, ticket sales, sell out crowds and media coverage. The rivalry between UT and UCONN which featured a yearly contest in Knoxville or Bridgeport would continue until 2012.