Summitt, Pat

Pat Summitt, née Patricia Head, (born June 14, 1952, Clarksville, Tennessee, U.S.—died June 27, 2016, Knoxville, Tennessee), American collegiate women’s basketball coach at the University of Tennessee (1974–2012) who led the squad to eight National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) championships (1987, 1989, 1991, 1996–98, and 2007–08) and compiled more wins (1,098) than any other Division I college basketball (men’s or women’s) coach in NCAA history, a record that stood until it was broken in 2020 by Stanford’s Tara VanDerveer.

She grew up on a dairy farm, where she developed the toughness that would become her trademark. She first played basketball in a hayloft, and her aggressive and instinctive play at the University of Tennessee at Martin (B.S., 1974; M.S., 1975) earned her spots on national teams. In 1975 she won gold at the Pan-American Games and the following year overcame a serious knee injury to cocaptain the U.S. Olympic team to a silver medal in Montreal. Soon afterward she retired as a player to concentrate on coaching.

Named head coach of the Lady Vols at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville in 1974, she posted a 16–8 record in her inaugural season. (In 1980 she married R.B. Summitt; the couple divorced in 2008.) Driven and uncompromising, Summitt demanded the best from her players and was known for her strenuous practices and the legendary “look” that would send athletes for cover. In 1987, months after earning her 300th win, she guided the Lady Vols to their first NCAA championship. With Summitt at the helm, the team went on to claim seven more titles. In 1996 Summitt notched her 600th victory, becoming only the second woman to tally that many wins on the court. Two years later she led Tennessee to an unprecedented third consecutive NCAA championship, capping a perfect season (39–0). The title came just days after she received the Associated Press’s Coach-of-the-Year award. In 2005 she earned her 880th victory, breaking Dean Smith’s record. Four years later she became the first NCAA basketball coach to register 1,000 career wins.

In 2011 Summitt was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer disease. Although she continued coaching for one more season, many of her duties were handled by her assistants. Summitt stepped down as head coach in April 2012, but she remained a part of the Lady Vols’ coaching staff in an advisory role under the title “head coach emeritus.”

In addition to collegiate basketball, Summitt also coached on the international level, leading the U.S. women’s team to gold at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. A noted motivator, she released two self-help books, Reach for the Summit and Raise the Roof (each with Sally Jenkins), in 1998. Summitt received numerous honours. She was named NCAA Coach of the Year seven times (1983, 1987, 1989, 1994, 1995, 1998, and 2004), and in 2000 she was declared Naismith Women’s College Coach of the Century. She was also inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame (1999) and the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame (2000). In 2012 Summitt was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Her memoir, Sum It Up (written with Jenkins), was published the following year.