Title IX, Pat Summitt, and Tennessee's Trailblazers: 50 Years, 50 Stories
Autor Mary Ellen Pethelen Limba Engleză Paperback – 17 oct 2022
In June 1972, President Richard Nixon put pen to paper and signed the Educational Amendments of 1972 into law. The nearly 150-page document makes no mention of “gender,” “athletics,” “girls,” or “women.” The closest reference to “sport” is transportation. In fact, the bill did not appear to contain anything earth shattering. But tucked into its final pages, a heading appears, “Title IX—Prohibition of Sex Discrimination.” These 37 words would change the world for girls and women across the United States. On its face, Title IX legally guaranteed equal opportunity in education. In time, Title IX would serve as the tipping point for the modern era of women’s sport. Slowly but surely, women’s athletics at the high school and collegiate levels grew to prominence, and Tennessee fast emerged as a national leader.
In Title IX, Pat Summitt, and Tennessee’s Trailblazers, Mary Ellen Pethel introduces readers to past and present pioneers—each instrumental to the success of women’s athletics across the state and nation. Through vibrant profiles, Pethel celebrates the lives and careers of household names like Pat Summitt and Candace Parker, as well as equally important forerunners such as Ann Furrow and Teresa Phillips. Through their lived experiences, these fifty individuals laid the foundation for athletic excellence in Tennessee, which in turn shaped the national landscape for women’s sports. The book also provides readers with a fuller understanding of Title IX, as well as a concise history of women’s athletics in the pre- and post-Title IX eras.
With interviewees ranging from age 20 to 93, Pethel artfully combines storytelling with scholarship. Guided by the voices of the athletes, coaches, and administrators, Pethel vividly documents achievement and adversity, wins and losses, and advice for the next generation. This book represents the first statewide compilation of its kind—offering readers a behind-the- scenes perspective of Tennessee women who dedicated their lives to the advancement of sport and gender equality. Readers will delight in Title IX, Pat Summitt, and Tennessee’s Trailblazers: 50 Years, 50 Stories.
In Title IX, Pat Summitt, and Tennessee’s Trailblazers, Mary Ellen Pethel introduces readers to past and present pioneers—each instrumental to the success of women’s athletics across the state and nation. Through vibrant profiles, Pethel celebrates the lives and careers of household names like Pat Summitt and Candace Parker, as well as equally important forerunners such as Ann Furrow and Teresa Phillips. Through their lived experiences, these fifty individuals laid the foundation for athletic excellence in Tennessee, which in turn shaped the national landscape for women’s sports. The book also provides readers with a fuller understanding of Title IX, as well as a concise history of women’s athletics in the pre- and post-Title IX eras.
With interviewees ranging from age 20 to 93, Pethel artfully combines storytelling with scholarship. Guided by the voices of the athletes, coaches, and administrators, Pethel vividly documents achievement and adversity, wins and losses, and advice for the next generation. This book represents the first statewide compilation of its kind—offering readers a behind-the- scenes perspective of Tennessee women who dedicated their lives to the advancement of sport and gender equality. Readers will delight in Title IX, Pat Summitt, and Tennessee’s Trailblazers: 50 Years, 50 Stories.
Preț: 140.16 lei
Nou
Puncte Express: 210
Preț estimativ în valută:
26.82€ • 28.28$ • 22.33£
26.82€ • 28.28$ • 22.33£
Carte disponibilă
Livrare economică 20 decembrie 24 - 03 ianuarie 25
Preluare comenzi: 021 569.72.76
Specificații
ISBN-13: 9781621907787
ISBN-10: 1621907783
Pagini: 376
Dimensiuni: 152 x 229 x 28 mm
Greutate: 0.54 kg
Editura: University of Tennessee Press
Colecția Univ Tennessee Press
ISBN-10: 1621907783
Pagini: 376
Dimensiuni: 152 x 229 x 28 mm
Greutate: 0.54 kg
Editura: University of Tennessee Press
Colecția Univ Tennessee Press
Notă biografică
MARY ELLEN PETHEL is an assistant professor in global leadership studies and honors at Belmont University. She is the author of Athens of the New South, A Heartfelt Mission,and All-Girls Education from Ward Seminary to Harpeth Hall. She is also the project director of NashvilleSites.org as part of the Metro Historical Commission Foundation.
Extras
Pat Head Summitt
You Win in Life with People
Pat Head Summitt’s obituary was not titled “The game’s greatest coach,” or “Larger than life legend”—though arguably she was both. Instead, the headline that announced her death on June 28, 2016, read simply, “You win in life with people.” It was an oft-repeated line that Pat shared when talking to players, colleagues, groups, and fans. But she also knew how to win on the basketball court.
As the head coach of UT women’s basketball for nearly 40 years, Pat Summitt’s record speaks for itself: 1,098 wins, 37 AIAW and NCAA tournament appearances, 18 NCAA Final Fours, 17 SEC Tournament Championships, and 8 NCAA National Championships. Moreover, she was named NCAA Coach of the Year 7 times and Naismith Coach of the Century in 2000. The numbers are impressive to be sure, but the wins and championships did not define her. There was, however, one number that Summitt treasured above all. It was the 161 basketball players who graduated from the University of Tennessee during her tenure (1974–2012).
There is no doubt that Patricia Head Summitt was a force of nature. She was a strong, unstoppable, unforgettable woman. But Pat was also a force of nurture. She molded the lives of young athletes, reciprocated the love received by fans, supported colleagues and fellow coaches, advocated for women’s sports, and loved the game of basketball. Over the course of her coaching career, Pat was as a surrogate mother, a mentor, a matriarch. And despite doses of tough love and piercing stares, she loved the Lady Vols. They weren’t just student-athletes, basketball players, coaches, or colleagues—they were family. That’s what meant the most to Pat Summitt.
In 1974, Pat was offered the assistant coach job at the University of Tennessee, where she also was promised a slot in their master’s program. Then, two weeks later, head coach Margaret Hudson resigned to pursue an academic sabbatical. Pat was asked to take the reins, and the 22-year-old accepted. Dr. Helen B. Watson, physical education professor, formalized the offer in a letter, dated April 1974. Pat recalled, “Dr. Watson offered me $250 a month. I mean I was bouncing checks all over the place. And now I had an opportunity to teach, coach, and get my master’s degree. She said the team had excellent potential, and they would be happy to have me as their coach.”
Pat joined Terry Crawford (track and field; cross country), Janie Barkman Tyler (swimming), and Sandra Standing (tennis) as new coaches under the leadership of UT’s first athletic director Gloria Ray. Crawford reminisced: “We were so excited back then. I remember several of us—including Gloria, Pat, and me—sitting in a booth at the Old College Inn [Knoxville]. . . . We came up with [the idea] of T-shirts with orange printing, ‘We’ve Come a Long Way, Baby.’” In the early years after Title IX, women’s teams at UT worked to generate more attention on campus and in the media. Ike Adams, student editorialist for The Daily Beacon, wrote in 1974: "For the past two years I have . . . read over and over again how the various women participating in sports put in long hours selling doughnuts and what-have-you, trying to raise money. . . . Yet I laughed at the idea of girls playing basketball, field hockey, or even swimming in competition with other schools. Now, after attending several different events. . . . These girls, believe it or not boys, are really good at what they do. . . . If you don’t believe me, go to one of the girls’ basketball games this week. There is no admission charge, although their play merits one. I’ll see you there."
Pat's first two years at UT were challenging to say the least. She taught PE classes, coached basketball, attended graduate classes, and trained for the Olympics. In her first year, the team finished with 16 wins and 3 losses. Their reward: an invitation to attend the men's awards banquet as guests. (The men's team had 3 wins and 20 losses in 1974–1975.) In her second season, Summitt's learning curve continued. Before one game Pat talked to Jane Pemberton, the starting center, and said, “The only thing you have to do is rebound.” They lost the game, and Pemberton only had one rebound. Pat confronted her with the stat sheet, and asked, “Now, does that tell you anything?” Jane replied, “Yes ma’am. You oughta think about moving me over to guard.”
Things started to click in the fall of 1976–1977. Holly Warlick joined the team as a walk-on and Trish Roberts, a teammate of Pat’s on the Olympic team, transferred from Emporia State College. Pat said, “Holly and Trish together were like a match touching dynamite.” In the season opener against the University of Kentucky, the team warmed up as Rod Stewart’s “Hot Legs” blared over the sound system. Trish Roberts was indeed “hot” that night—scoring 51 points and grabbing 20 rebounds in a victorious romp (107–53). The team made its first AIAW Final Four in 1977 and returned in 1978. In 1978, UT-Knoxville defeated Delta State in front of 6,000 people on their home court in Stokely Athletic Center. Two years later, they played in their first AIAW national championship game. They may not have won the title, but their overall success caught the public's attention. Knoxville had been bitten by the Lady Vol bug.
During the late 1970s, budgets expanded, and Pat had more money, more scholarships, and more leverage as a winning coach. “The days of punch and cookies were over. President Gerald R. Ford had signed Title IX regulations into law in 1975, and schools hurriedly poured money into women’s basketball in an effort to comply. . . . After all the years of bad uniforms and bake sales, I was suddenly in the middle of a gold rush,” Pat said. She ramped up her recruiting efforts but was hampered by the high school’s half-court game. In fact, Tennessee and Iowa were the only two states still playing three-on-three basketball.
Then, in 1976, a high school student-athlete in Oak Ridge named Victoria Cape sued the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association (TSSAA). She claimed the limited half-court game constituted discrimination under Title IX and the Fourteenth Amendment. Pat testified on behalf of Cape in October 1976 and said that TSSAA's reluctance to adopt full-court basketball hampered her recruitment. She explained to the judge that “a guard in the split-court game lacked the offensive skills, shooting in particular," which presented "a problem in going on to college and playing." The lower court ruled in favor of Cape, but the decision was overturned by an appeals court in 1977.
Pat was disappointed and decided it was time to become more vocal. On March 3, 1979, the Knoxville Journal ran a story with the headline: “No More Signees From Halfcourt Game—Head.” Pat was quoted, “I realized mid-season that there’s just too much adjustment to make. . . . From now on, my recruiting will be from five-on-five systems.” Two weeks later, the Tennessee State Legislature “took action,” and “before the month was out,” the TSSAA voted to allow girls to play full-court basketball in Tennessee high schools.
There was still quite a bit of apprehension about how women’s sports would affect men’s programs at the college level. Pat noted, “Especially in the South, a woman didn’t make male allies by ranting or picking needless fights.” So, with the support of AD Gloria Ray they “won one small issue at a time.” Gloria and Pat often reassured administrators and donors that women’s sports were “not a substitute for” but “an addition to” men’s sports. Pat’s success in the early days depended on her ability to walk a tight rope—working within the existing administrative system while advocating for better locker rooms, additional staff, and more resources. “You don’t cut what you can untie,” she said. Title IX provided the legal foundation, but winning certainly made it easier to ask and get a “yes.”
“Sometimes I ask myself, ‘Could I play for me?’ . . . Back in 1974, no way could I have played for me,” Pat wrote in Reaching for the Summit. She demanded much from her players, and even more from herself. “There’s no such thing as self-respect without respect for others. . . . We are all dependent on those around us,” she said and added, “Players don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” Her emphasis on respect and caring for other was foundational to the love shared by those in the Lady Vol family. Pat also found a love of her own. After a long courtship, she married banker Ross Barnes Summitt in 1980. Pat Head became Pat Summitt—a fitting last name for someone who was about to take women’s basketball to new heights.
In the early 1980s, Summitt was asked to coach the US Junior National and US National teams, which culminated in a “magical run” at the 1984 Olympics. The team won the gold, and Pat was carried off the floor by the players. Some, including Indiana head coach Bobby Knight, thought she should go out on top. “You need to retire and start your family,” Knight told her. Her father also said as much in a conversation after the Olympics. But Pat pushed back: “Dad, I can have a family and still coach.” The traditional view was that women could have a career or be a mother and wife—but not both. Pat was one of many women in the late 1970s and 1980s that helped shift this perception.
In 1985, Summitt added two members to the Lady Vol coaching family when she hired Holly Warlick and Mickie DeMoss as assistant coaches. Before coming to UT, Mickie was an assistant coach at Auburn University, and Holly was an assistant coach at the University of Nebraska. There were other assistant coaches through the years, including Carolyn Peck, Al Brown, Dean Lockwood, and Nikki Caldwell Fargas. But for 28 years, Holly and Mickie would be Pat’s “mainstays, partners in mischief, emotional counselors, equalizers, truth tellers, comforters, and favorite dinner companions.” In 2013, Summitt reflected on their years together, “We struck the right balance of laughter and serious purpose. . . . We were a combination of floor show and secret society.”
After several Final Four appearances, Summitt finally got the national-championship-hump off her back in 1987. The University of Tennessee defeated Louisiana Tech University, 67–44. The Lady Vols were led by Dawn Marsh, Carla McGhee, Sheila Frost, Melissa McCray, Kathy Spinks, Cheryl Littlejohn, and Bridgette Gordon. Many on the team would also be part of the NCAA National Championship team in 1989.
Pat’s surrogate motherhood began with Bridgette Gordon. Sitting on the Gordon’s front porch, Bridgette’s mother, Marjorie, said to Pat: “Bridgette’s so young and she’s never been anywhere, Pat. Please take care of her.” Summitt felt weight of the responsibility but also welcomed the chance to “be there” for Bridgette on and off the court. Then, in fall of 1987, Carla McGhee was in a serious car accident. Pat sat by her bedside for three days while she laid in a coma and was pivotal in Carla’s months-long physical and emotional recovery. In retrospect, Summitt said, “The fact was, I had my share of motherly feelings and needed someplace to put them, and, well, here were all these kids right in front of me.”
She also wanted to have a child of her own and suffered six miscarriages in the 1980s. Then in 1990, Pat announced she was five months pregnant. She handled her pregnancy the same way she handled everything, full throttle. “I took to pregnancy like an athlete, . . . I power walked right up until the day I delivered,” she said. And in true Summitt-style, the day of delivery was intense. She was on a recruiting trip to visit Michelle Marciniak when her water broke on the plane en route to Pennsylvania. Rather than return to Knoxville, Pat decided to proceed with the visit.
When she arrived at the house, Summitt told Michelle’s parents she was in labor. When Michelle walked in she “knew things weren’t right.” Marciniak recalled, “My dad’s sitting on the edge of the sofa jingling his change in his pocket. . . Pat was on and off the phone and going to the bathroom.” Summitt finally said, “Michelle, I’m afraid we’re going to have to cut this visit short. The baby is on its way.” The 17-year-old looked at her as if to ask: “Are you about to have a baby on my couch?”
Pat didn’t have the baby on Michelle’s couch, but she nearly gave birth on the way home. The pilot suggested an emergency landing in Virginia, but after the previous year’s NCAA tournament loss to UVA, it was not an option for Pat. She announced with no amount of uncertainty, “I am having this baby in Knoxville. Tell them if they land this plane in Virginia, they’re going to have a madwoman on their hands.” Pat handed Mickie an emergency pamphlet on how to deliver a baby. “[W]ith a look of stark terror, [Mickie] downed a belt of bourbon and began reading,” Pat wrote.
They touched down in Knoxville and Pat was whisked away in an ambulance. Four hours later, Ross Tyler Summit was born on September 21, 1990. From that day forward, Pat counted Tyler as her greatest achievement. He became a fixture at practices and games; in fact, Tyler attended his first practice when he was just a week old.
As a new mother, Pat began a new decade filled with promise, and she had reason to be confident. The Lady Vols owned the 1990s. In 1991, the team won their third championship in five years, led by Daedra Charles, Carla McGhee, Dena Head, and Nikki Caldwell Fargas. Playing for Pat Summitt was demanding, but it was always about more than basketball. Nikki Fargas reminisced: “Pat would say, ‘You win with the person next to you. This is your family.’” And quite often, Summitt was the parent you feared most. Daedra Charles, awarded the Wade Trophy, dreaded when Pat said, “circle up,” because that meant there was something serious to discuss. Charles laughed, “Oh, heck, she had informants. . . . I’d say, ‘How’d my mama know that?’ I called [Pat] Mama.”
By the 1990s, the Lady Volunteers were the premier women’s basketball program in the nation, and Pat helped nationalize the game. She also supported UT’s decision to start four new women’s programs: golf (1990), rowing (1995), softball (1996), and soccer (1996). She often met with recruits from these sports, including Monica Abbott (2004–2007), now a two-time Olympian and professional softball player. With Pat and women’s athletic director Joan Cronan leading the charge, women’s teams at UT were ranked in the Top 20 for nearly every sport. Pat also maintained good relationships with male coaches, athletes, and administrators like Peyton Manning, Phillip Fulmer, Bruce Pearl, and Joe Johnson.
It’s not to say that there were not tough moments during the 1990s. Michelle Marciniak transferred to UT in 1993 and was the starting point guard, but the relationship between coach and player was often rocky. Pat wrote, “Families fight, and . . . . I didn’t always fight fair with Michelle Marciniak.” In the 1994 NCAA Sweet Sixteen again Louisiana Tech, Pat pulled Michelle after a bad play. As she came off the court, a photographer captured the moment with Pat in Michelle’s face, clenching her jersey. The image was picked up by the press. “I wasn’t proud of the photo—it looked like the Wicked Witch talking to Sprinderella,” Summitt admitted. Michelle taped the picture to her car dashboard and used it as motivation. When they won the 1996 NCAA Championship, Pat grabbed Michelle’s jersey once more—as they embraced. Marciniak was named the Final Four’s MVP.
The 1996 team also debuted two pivotal freshman, Chamique Holdsclaw and Kellie Jolly. Over the next two years, they were joined by the best recruiting classes in the nation, which included Niya Butts, Kyra Elzy, Tamika Catchings, Sameka Randall, Kristen “Ace” Clement, and Teresa Geter. After winning an improbable back-to-back title in 1997 with ten losses, the stage was set for Pat’s one and only perfect season. The 1997–1998 team was led by Holdsclaw, who was, according to Summitt, “the player the women’s game had been waiting for, 6-feet-2 of near angelic leaping ability and a headlines of Michael Jordanesque charisma.” But the floor general was point guard Kellie Jolly. Pat wrote about Jolly, also a Tennessee native, “Every once in awhile you meet yourself in a player. That’s how it was with Kellie and me—we just knew each other right away.”
In the national championship game, Summitt recalled, “Tennessee played some of the most glorious basketball I had ever seen. . . . There were times the ball didn’t even touch the floor.” Their 39 wins were the most ever recorded in a collegiate season by any team, men or women, at that time. When Summitt entered the locker room after their championship victory, she was shocked: “The room was virtually silent . . . Our players sat in front of their lockers subdued. . . . No one spoke. They all just looked at me.” “What’s wrong?” Pat asked. Sameka Randall said softly, “We’re sad.” Confused, Pat asked why. Randall replied, “Because it’s over.” Years later, Holdsclaw put it simply: “We played the game for one another.”
Summitt would have to wait nine years for another national championship, but she continued to mentor, coach, and teach the young women in her charge. In her 38 years at the helm, the graduation rate of players who completed their eligibility at UT was 100 percent. For some, like Chamique Holdsclaw, Summitt’s academic expectations were seminal. When Holdsclaw’s grades dipped, Pat pulled her aside and said, “Just as great an athlete and player as you are, you can be just as great a student.” Her GPA popped up to a 3.5. “When she told me that, . . . I was like wow, she really believes in me, the way she looked at me with those eyes. After that we were a match made in heaven,” Chamique explained.
Despite strong seasons and talented players like Michelle Snow, Kara Lawson, Ashley Robinson, Shanna Zolman, Loree Moore, and Shyra Ely, UT failed to win a national championship from 1999 to 2006. Summitt broke the all-time NCAA record for coaching victories in 2005 and was the first women’s basketball coach to crack the $1 million ceiling with a contract in 2006. Still, some wondered if Pat was past her prime. The team was also battling injuries and dealing with personal grief. Michelle Snow’s mother, Rosa, passed away in 2004, and Pat’s father, Richard, died in 2005. Pat was also diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis and filed for divorce from R. B. Summitt.
But the recruiting class, known as “the Six Pack,” would come through in the 2006–2007 season. Led by “the magnificent six-foot-four prodigy Candace Parker,” the team reclaimed the national title. Summitt said, “We were finally whole and healthy. Above all we had Candace Parker, the best player in a generation.” Summitt first met Candace when she was 13 after a game against DePaul in 2000. Parker’s father approached Pat and asked for a picture with Candace. Parker recalled, “She looked over and said in this big southern accent, ‘I’m gonna have to take you home and fatten you up.’”
Pat’s last national title came in 2008, for back-to-back championship seasons. Parker played through a shoulder injury but was far from 100 percent. Shannon Bobbit, Alexis Hornbuckle, Angie Bjorkland, and Nicky Anosike picked up the slack, and the Lady Vols defeated Stanford by 16 points. It was quite a sight when the final buzzer sounded, the 5’2” Bobbitt ran across the court and picked the 6’4” Parker up off the ground.
After 2008, Pat noticed that “things weren’t right.” She often felt foggy and was increasingly forgetful. Certain incidents could not be explained away as simply “senior moments.” But not until the summer of 2011 did she seek and receive an official diagnosis. “It was time to circle up,” Summitt said. She gathered the team and told them she had early-onset dementia, Alzheimer’s type. The team sat in silence, some quietly cried. In signature form, Pat snapped back: “Listen up. . . [w]ith a diagnosis like this you don’t quit living. You keep going. . . . And I’m certainly not going to forget to yell at you.” The team broke into laughter, and senior Vicki Baugh said, “We’ve got your back, Pat.”
That line would be the mantra for Pat’s final season (2011–2012). By her side were Holly Warlick, as associate head coach, and Mickie DeMoss who returned for Summitt’s final two years. At every game, home and away, the stands filled with fans wearing Tennessee Orange t-shirts that read “We Back Pat.” UT lost in the NCAA Elite Eight to Baylor University, coached by her friend Kim Mulkey, on March 26, 2012. In 38 years, Pat’s record was 1,098–208 (84 percent). Back in Knoxville, UT’s administration offered Pat the position of head coach emeritus. It was the perfect solution, and Summitt could stay involved as long as her health permitted. Pat wrote, “What made it easier . . . was the secure knowledge that I could pass on the job to someone I loved, Holly Warlick.”
Pat Summitt’s last press conference was on April 20, 2012. She said, in part: "I am so proud of all the Lady Vol student-athletes, and it’s been an honor to see them graduate and become successful young women. Together with these young women, a great staff, and a supportive administration we have taken a magnificent journey [and] grown the game . . . supported by the best fans in the country. . . . We have managed to win some ball games and hang championship banners in Thompson-Boling Arena. But I made a choice early in my career to challenge myself to step up my game each and every day. You can be sure that I will take the same attitude into my new role."
She ended with a simple statement, “I can promise you, I’m here for you.” It was a promise she kept. She was there for 161 Lady Vols’ basketball players, for her son Tyler, for friends and family, for professional athletes, for women and women’s sports, for the state of Tennessee, for US presidents from Reagan to Obama, for coaches across the country, for sports fans all over the world. In 2011, she established the Pat Summitt Foundation, which later opened the Pat Summitt Center at the UT Medical Center to advance Alzheimer’s research and improve access to healthcare for affected patients and families.
Pat Head Summitt passed away on June 28, 2016. A month later, Thompson-Boling Arena was full for a Celebration of Life event. According to journalist Ron Higgins, “Tears were the appetizer and laughter was the dessert. But the main course was a generous helping of gratitude.” Four years later, UT alum and WNBA all-star, Candace Parker wrote a heartfelt post to the late Summitt: “I miss you, . . . but I’m so thankful for the lessons and values and actions you demonstrated everyday while you were here. . . . I love you and there’s not a day that goes by where I don’t think about you. Lailaa (Parker’s daughter) really believes she can do anything and. . . that fire and desire mentality. . . [is] inspired by you. To me, THAT’S legacy.”
You Win in Life with People
Pat Head Summitt’s obituary was not titled “The game’s greatest coach,” or “Larger than life legend”—though arguably she was both. Instead, the headline that announced her death on June 28, 2016, read simply, “You win in life with people.” It was an oft-repeated line that Pat shared when talking to players, colleagues, groups, and fans. But she also knew how to win on the basketball court.
As the head coach of UT women’s basketball for nearly 40 years, Pat Summitt’s record speaks for itself: 1,098 wins, 37 AIAW and NCAA tournament appearances, 18 NCAA Final Fours, 17 SEC Tournament Championships, and 8 NCAA National Championships. Moreover, she was named NCAA Coach of the Year 7 times and Naismith Coach of the Century in 2000. The numbers are impressive to be sure, but the wins and championships did not define her. There was, however, one number that Summitt treasured above all. It was the 161 basketball players who graduated from the University of Tennessee during her tenure (1974–2012).
There is no doubt that Patricia Head Summitt was a force of nature. She was a strong, unstoppable, unforgettable woman. But Pat was also a force of nurture. She molded the lives of young athletes, reciprocated the love received by fans, supported colleagues and fellow coaches, advocated for women’s sports, and loved the game of basketball. Over the course of her coaching career, Pat was as a surrogate mother, a mentor, a matriarch. And despite doses of tough love and piercing stares, she loved the Lady Vols. They weren’t just student-athletes, basketball players, coaches, or colleagues—they were family. That’s what meant the most to Pat Summitt.
In 1974, Pat was offered the assistant coach job at the University of Tennessee, where she also was promised a slot in their master’s program. Then, two weeks later, head coach Margaret Hudson resigned to pursue an academic sabbatical. Pat was asked to take the reins, and the 22-year-old accepted. Dr. Helen B. Watson, physical education professor, formalized the offer in a letter, dated April 1974. Pat recalled, “Dr. Watson offered me $250 a month. I mean I was bouncing checks all over the place. And now I had an opportunity to teach, coach, and get my master’s degree. She said the team had excellent potential, and they would be happy to have me as their coach.”
Pat joined Terry Crawford (track and field; cross country), Janie Barkman Tyler (swimming), and Sandra Standing (tennis) as new coaches under the leadership of UT’s first athletic director Gloria Ray. Crawford reminisced: “We were so excited back then. I remember several of us—including Gloria, Pat, and me—sitting in a booth at the Old College Inn [Knoxville]. . . . We came up with [the idea] of T-shirts with orange printing, ‘We’ve Come a Long Way, Baby.’” In the early years after Title IX, women’s teams at UT worked to generate more attention on campus and in the media. Ike Adams, student editorialist for The Daily Beacon, wrote in 1974: "For the past two years I have . . . read over and over again how the various women participating in sports put in long hours selling doughnuts and what-have-you, trying to raise money. . . . Yet I laughed at the idea of girls playing basketball, field hockey, or even swimming in competition with other schools. Now, after attending several different events. . . . These girls, believe it or not boys, are really good at what they do. . . . If you don’t believe me, go to one of the girls’ basketball games this week. There is no admission charge, although their play merits one. I’ll see you there."
Pat's first two years at UT were challenging to say the least. She taught PE classes, coached basketball, attended graduate classes, and trained for the Olympics. In her first year, the team finished with 16 wins and 3 losses. Their reward: an invitation to attend the men's awards banquet as guests. (The men's team had 3 wins and 20 losses in 1974–1975.) In her second season, Summitt's learning curve continued. Before one game Pat talked to Jane Pemberton, the starting center, and said, “The only thing you have to do is rebound.” They lost the game, and Pemberton only had one rebound. Pat confronted her with the stat sheet, and asked, “Now, does that tell you anything?” Jane replied, “Yes ma’am. You oughta think about moving me over to guard.”
Things started to click in the fall of 1976–1977. Holly Warlick joined the team as a walk-on and Trish Roberts, a teammate of Pat’s on the Olympic team, transferred from Emporia State College. Pat said, “Holly and Trish together were like a match touching dynamite.” In the season opener against the University of Kentucky, the team warmed up as Rod Stewart’s “Hot Legs” blared over the sound system. Trish Roberts was indeed “hot” that night—scoring 51 points and grabbing 20 rebounds in a victorious romp (107–53). The team made its first AIAW Final Four in 1977 and returned in 1978. In 1978, UT-Knoxville defeated Delta State in front of 6,000 people on their home court in Stokely Athletic Center. Two years later, they played in their first AIAW national championship game. They may not have won the title, but their overall success caught the public's attention. Knoxville had been bitten by the Lady Vol bug.
During the late 1970s, budgets expanded, and Pat had more money, more scholarships, and more leverage as a winning coach. “The days of punch and cookies were over. President Gerald R. Ford had signed Title IX regulations into law in 1975, and schools hurriedly poured money into women’s basketball in an effort to comply. . . . After all the years of bad uniforms and bake sales, I was suddenly in the middle of a gold rush,” Pat said. She ramped up her recruiting efforts but was hampered by the high school’s half-court game. In fact, Tennessee and Iowa were the only two states still playing three-on-three basketball.
Then, in 1976, a high school student-athlete in Oak Ridge named Victoria Cape sued the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association (TSSAA). She claimed the limited half-court game constituted discrimination under Title IX and the Fourteenth Amendment. Pat testified on behalf of Cape in October 1976 and said that TSSAA's reluctance to adopt full-court basketball hampered her recruitment. She explained to the judge that “a guard in the split-court game lacked the offensive skills, shooting in particular," which presented "a problem in going on to college and playing." The lower court ruled in favor of Cape, but the decision was overturned by an appeals court in 1977.
Pat was disappointed and decided it was time to become more vocal. On March 3, 1979, the Knoxville Journal ran a story with the headline: “No More Signees From Halfcourt Game—Head.” Pat was quoted, “I realized mid-season that there’s just too much adjustment to make. . . . From now on, my recruiting will be from five-on-five systems.” Two weeks later, the Tennessee State Legislature “took action,” and “before the month was out,” the TSSAA voted to allow girls to play full-court basketball in Tennessee high schools.
There was still quite a bit of apprehension about how women’s sports would affect men’s programs at the college level. Pat noted, “Especially in the South, a woman didn’t make male allies by ranting or picking needless fights.” So, with the support of AD Gloria Ray they “won one small issue at a time.” Gloria and Pat often reassured administrators and donors that women’s sports were “not a substitute for” but “an addition to” men’s sports. Pat’s success in the early days depended on her ability to walk a tight rope—working within the existing administrative system while advocating for better locker rooms, additional staff, and more resources. “You don’t cut what you can untie,” she said. Title IX provided the legal foundation, but winning certainly made it easier to ask and get a “yes.”
“Sometimes I ask myself, ‘Could I play for me?’ . . . Back in 1974, no way could I have played for me,” Pat wrote in Reaching for the Summit. She demanded much from her players, and even more from herself. “There’s no such thing as self-respect without respect for others. . . . We are all dependent on those around us,” she said and added, “Players don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” Her emphasis on respect and caring for other was foundational to the love shared by those in the Lady Vol family. Pat also found a love of her own. After a long courtship, she married banker Ross Barnes Summitt in 1980. Pat Head became Pat Summitt—a fitting last name for someone who was about to take women’s basketball to new heights.
In the early 1980s, Summitt was asked to coach the US Junior National and US National teams, which culminated in a “magical run” at the 1984 Olympics. The team won the gold, and Pat was carried off the floor by the players. Some, including Indiana head coach Bobby Knight, thought she should go out on top. “You need to retire and start your family,” Knight told her. Her father also said as much in a conversation after the Olympics. But Pat pushed back: “Dad, I can have a family and still coach.” The traditional view was that women could have a career or be a mother and wife—but not both. Pat was one of many women in the late 1970s and 1980s that helped shift this perception.
In 1985, Summitt added two members to the Lady Vol coaching family when she hired Holly Warlick and Mickie DeMoss as assistant coaches. Before coming to UT, Mickie was an assistant coach at Auburn University, and Holly was an assistant coach at the University of Nebraska. There were other assistant coaches through the years, including Carolyn Peck, Al Brown, Dean Lockwood, and Nikki Caldwell Fargas. But for 28 years, Holly and Mickie would be Pat’s “mainstays, partners in mischief, emotional counselors, equalizers, truth tellers, comforters, and favorite dinner companions.” In 2013, Summitt reflected on their years together, “We struck the right balance of laughter and serious purpose. . . . We were a combination of floor show and secret society.”
After several Final Four appearances, Summitt finally got the national-championship-hump off her back in 1987. The University of Tennessee defeated Louisiana Tech University, 67–44. The Lady Vols were led by Dawn Marsh, Carla McGhee, Sheila Frost, Melissa McCray, Kathy Spinks, Cheryl Littlejohn, and Bridgette Gordon. Many on the team would also be part of the NCAA National Championship team in 1989.
Pat’s surrogate motherhood began with Bridgette Gordon. Sitting on the Gordon’s front porch, Bridgette’s mother, Marjorie, said to Pat: “Bridgette’s so young and she’s never been anywhere, Pat. Please take care of her.” Summitt felt weight of the responsibility but also welcomed the chance to “be there” for Bridgette on and off the court. Then, in fall of 1987, Carla McGhee was in a serious car accident. Pat sat by her bedside for three days while she laid in a coma and was pivotal in Carla’s months-long physical and emotional recovery. In retrospect, Summitt said, “The fact was, I had my share of motherly feelings and needed someplace to put them, and, well, here were all these kids right in front of me.”
She also wanted to have a child of her own and suffered six miscarriages in the 1980s. Then in 1990, Pat announced she was five months pregnant. She handled her pregnancy the same way she handled everything, full throttle. “I took to pregnancy like an athlete, . . . I power walked right up until the day I delivered,” she said. And in true Summitt-style, the day of delivery was intense. She was on a recruiting trip to visit Michelle Marciniak when her water broke on the plane en route to Pennsylvania. Rather than return to Knoxville, Pat decided to proceed with the visit.
When she arrived at the house, Summitt told Michelle’s parents she was in labor. When Michelle walked in she “knew things weren’t right.” Marciniak recalled, “My dad’s sitting on the edge of the sofa jingling his change in his pocket. . . Pat was on and off the phone and going to the bathroom.” Summitt finally said, “Michelle, I’m afraid we’re going to have to cut this visit short. The baby is on its way.” The 17-year-old looked at her as if to ask: “Are you about to have a baby on my couch?”
Pat didn’t have the baby on Michelle’s couch, but she nearly gave birth on the way home. The pilot suggested an emergency landing in Virginia, but after the previous year’s NCAA tournament loss to UVA, it was not an option for Pat. She announced with no amount of uncertainty, “I am having this baby in Knoxville. Tell them if they land this plane in Virginia, they’re going to have a madwoman on their hands.” Pat handed Mickie an emergency pamphlet on how to deliver a baby. “[W]ith a look of stark terror, [Mickie] downed a belt of bourbon and began reading,” Pat wrote.
They touched down in Knoxville and Pat was whisked away in an ambulance. Four hours later, Ross Tyler Summit was born on September 21, 1990. From that day forward, Pat counted Tyler as her greatest achievement. He became a fixture at practices and games; in fact, Tyler attended his first practice when he was just a week old.
As a new mother, Pat began a new decade filled with promise, and she had reason to be confident. The Lady Vols owned the 1990s. In 1991, the team won their third championship in five years, led by Daedra Charles, Carla McGhee, Dena Head, and Nikki Caldwell Fargas. Playing for Pat Summitt was demanding, but it was always about more than basketball. Nikki Fargas reminisced: “Pat would say, ‘You win with the person next to you. This is your family.’” And quite often, Summitt was the parent you feared most. Daedra Charles, awarded the Wade Trophy, dreaded when Pat said, “circle up,” because that meant there was something serious to discuss. Charles laughed, “Oh, heck, she had informants. . . . I’d say, ‘How’d my mama know that?’ I called [Pat] Mama.”
By the 1990s, the Lady Volunteers were the premier women’s basketball program in the nation, and Pat helped nationalize the game. She also supported UT’s decision to start four new women’s programs: golf (1990), rowing (1995), softball (1996), and soccer (1996). She often met with recruits from these sports, including Monica Abbott (2004–2007), now a two-time Olympian and professional softball player. With Pat and women’s athletic director Joan Cronan leading the charge, women’s teams at UT were ranked in the Top 20 for nearly every sport. Pat also maintained good relationships with male coaches, athletes, and administrators like Peyton Manning, Phillip Fulmer, Bruce Pearl, and Joe Johnson.
It’s not to say that there were not tough moments during the 1990s. Michelle Marciniak transferred to UT in 1993 and was the starting point guard, but the relationship between coach and player was often rocky. Pat wrote, “Families fight, and . . . . I didn’t always fight fair with Michelle Marciniak.” In the 1994 NCAA Sweet Sixteen again Louisiana Tech, Pat pulled Michelle after a bad play. As she came off the court, a photographer captured the moment with Pat in Michelle’s face, clenching her jersey. The image was picked up by the press. “I wasn’t proud of the photo—it looked like the Wicked Witch talking to Sprinderella,” Summitt admitted. Michelle taped the picture to her car dashboard and used it as motivation. When they won the 1996 NCAA Championship, Pat grabbed Michelle’s jersey once more—as they embraced. Marciniak was named the Final Four’s MVP.
The 1996 team also debuted two pivotal freshman, Chamique Holdsclaw and Kellie Jolly. Over the next two years, they were joined by the best recruiting classes in the nation, which included Niya Butts, Kyra Elzy, Tamika Catchings, Sameka Randall, Kristen “Ace” Clement, and Teresa Geter. After winning an improbable back-to-back title in 1997 with ten losses, the stage was set for Pat’s one and only perfect season. The 1997–1998 team was led by Holdsclaw, who was, according to Summitt, “the player the women’s game had been waiting for, 6-feet-2 of near angelic leaping ability and a headlines of Michael Jordanesque charisma.” But the floor general was point guard Kellie Jolly. Pat wrote about Jolly, also a Tennessee native, “Every once in awhile you meet yourself in a player. That’s how it was with Kellie and me—we just knew each other right away.”
In the national championship game, Summitt recalled, “Tennessee played some of the most glorious basketball I had ever seen. . . . There were times the ball didn’t even touch the floor.” Their 39 wins were the most ever recorded in a collegiate season by any team, men or women, at that time. When Summitt entered the locker room after their championship victory, she was shocked: “The room was virtually silent . . . Our players sat in front of their lockers subdued. . . . No one spoke. They all just looked at me.” “What’s wrong?” Pat asked. Sameka Randall said softly, “We’re sad.” Confused, Pat asked why. Randall replied, “Because it’s over.” Years later, Holdsclaw put it simply: “We played the game for one another.”
Summitt would have to wait nine years for another national championship, but she continued to mentor, coach, and teach the young women in her charge. In her 38 years at the helm, the graduation rate of players who completed their eligibility at UT was 100 percent. For some, like Chamique Holdsclaw, Summitt’s academic expectations were seminal. When Holdsclaw’s grades dipped, Pat pulled her aside and said, “Just as great an athlete and player as you are, you can be just as great a student.” Her GPA popped up to a 3.5. “When she told me that, . . . I was like wow, she really believes in me, the way she looked at me with those eyes. After that we were a match made in heaven,” Chamique explained.
Despite strong seasons and talented players like Michelle Snow, Kara Lawson, Ashley Robinson, Shanna Zolman, Loree Moore, and Shyra Ely, UT failed to win a national championship from 1999 to 2006. Summitt broke the all-time NCAA record for coaching victories in 2005 and was the first women’s basketball coach to crack the $1 million ceiling with a contract in 2006. Still, some wondered if Pat was past her prime. The team was also battling injuries and dealing with personal grief. Michelle Snow’s mother, Rosa, passed away in 2004, and Pat’s father, Richard, died in 2005. Pat was also diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis and filed for divorce from R. B. Summitt.
But the recruiting class, known as “the Six Pack,” would come through in the 2006–2007 season. Led by “the magnificent six-foot-four prodigy Candace Parker,” the team reclaimed the national title. Summitt said, “We were finally whole and healthy. Above all we had Candace Parker, the best player in a generation.” Summitt first met Candace when she was 13 after a game against DePaul in 2000. Parker’s father approached Pat and asked for a picture with Candace. Parker recalled, “She looked over and said in this big southern accent, ‘I’m gonna have to take you home and fatten you up.’”
Pat’s last national title came in 2008, for back-to-back championship seasons. Parker played through a shoulder injury but was far from 100 percent. Shannon Bobbit, Alexis Hornbuckle, Angie Bjorkland, and Nicky Anosike picked up the slack, and the Lady Vols defeated Stanford by 16 points. It was quite a sight when the final buzzer sounded, the 5’2” Bobbitt ran across the court and picked the 6’4” Parker up off the ground.
After 2008, Pat noticed that “things weren’t right.” She often felt foggy and was increasingly forgetful. Certain incidents could not be explained away as simply “senior moments.” But not until the summer of 2011 did she seek and receive an official diagnosis. “It was time to circle up,” Summitt said. She gathered the team and told them she had early-onset dementia, Alzheimer’s type. The team sat in silence, some quietly cried. In signature form, Pat snapped back: “Listen up. . . [w]ith a diagnosis like this you don’t quit living. You keep going. . . . And I’m certainly not going to forget to yell at you.” The team broke into laughter, and senior Vicki Baugh said, “We’ve got your back, Pat.”
That line would be the mantra for Pat’s final season (2011–2012). By her side were Holly Warlick, as associate head coach, and Mickie DeMoss who returned for Summitt’s final two years. At every game, home and away, the stands filled with fans wearing Tennessee Orange t-shirts that read “We Back Pat.” UT lost in the NCAA Elite Eight to Baylor University, coached by her friend Kim Mulkey, on March 26, 2012. In 38 years, Pat’s record was 1,098–208 (84 percent). Back in Knoxville, UT’s administration offered Pat the position of head coach emeritus. It was the perfect solution, and Summitt could stay involved as long as her health permitted. Pat wrote, “What made it easier . . . was the secure knowledge that I could pass on the job to someone I loved, Holly Warlick.”
Pat Summitt’s last press conference was on April 20, 2012. She said, in part: "I am so proud of all the Lady Vol student-athletes, and it’s been an honor to see them graduate and become successful young women. Together with these young women, a great staff, and a supportive administration we have taken a magnificent journey [and] grown the game . . . supported by the best fans in the country. . . . We have managed to win some ball games and hang championship banners in Thompson-Boling Arena. But I made a choice early in my career to challenge myself to step up my game each and every day. You can be sure that I will take the same attitude into my new role."
She ended with a simple statement, “I can promise you, I’m here for you.” It was a promise she kept. She was there for 161 Lady Vols’ basketball players, for her son Tyler, for friends and family, for professional athletes, for women and women’s sports, for the state of Tennessee, for US presidents from Reagan to Obama, for coaches across the country, for sports fans all over the world. In 2011, she established the Pat Summitt Foundation, which later opened the Pat Summitt Center at the UT Medical Center to advance Alzheimer’s research and improve access to healthcare for affected patients and families.
Pat Head Summitt passed away on June 28, 2016. A month later, Thompson-Boling Arena was full for a Celebration of Life event. According to journalist Ron Higgins, “Tears were the appetizer and laughter was the dessert. But the main course was a generous helping of gratitude.” Four years later, UT alum and WNBA all-star, Candace Parker wrote a heartfelt post to the late Summitt: “I miss you, . . . but I’m so thankful for the lessons and values and actions you demonstrated everyday while you were here. . . . I love you and there’s not a day that goes by where I don’t think about you. Lailaa (Parker’s daughter) really believes she can do anything and. . . that fire and desire mentality. . . [is] inspired by you. To me, THAT’S legacy.”
In life and in death, Pat is still winning.
Recenzii
"Whether gold medalists, NCAA champions, legendary coaches, or pioneering athletes and administrators, Tennessee has been home to an incredible vanguard of women in sports. Mary Ellen Pethel brings us the stories of women whose accomplishments continue to pave the way for generations to come. This is a valuable collection, an important book, and a timely tribute on this fiftiethanniversary of Title IX."
—Andrew Maraniss, bestselling author of Strong Inside: Perry Wallace and the Collision of Race and Sports in the South and Inaugural Ballers: The True Story of the First U.S. Women’s Olympic Basketball Team
—Andrew Maraniss, bestselling author of Strong Inside: Perry Wallace and the Collision of Race and Sports in the South and Inaugural Ballers: The True Story of the First U.S. Women’s Olympic Basketball Team