Pat Sue Summitt has died
Patricia Sue Summitt was one of the best college basketball head coach who achieved the most wins in NCAA basketball history, died age 64.
She served as the head coach of the University of Tennessee Lady Vols basketball team from 1974 to 2012, winning eight NCAA championships an NCAA women’s record when she retired and surpassed only by the 10 titles won by UCLA men’s coach John Wooden and the 11 titles won by UConn women’s coach Geno Auriemma. She was the first NCAA coach, and one of four college coaches overall, to achieve at least 1,000 wins, and she achieved 1,098.
Summitt also won an Olympic Gold medal as head coach of the 1984 U.S. women’s basketball team, and was named the Naismith Basketball Coach of the Century in April 2000. In 2009, theSporting News placed her at number 11 on its list of the 50 Greatest Coaches of All Time in all sports, and moreover all she was the Only Woman on the list. In 38 years as a coach, she never had a losing season. In 2012, Summitt was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama. She received the Arthur Ashe Courage Award at the 2012 ESPY Awards.
Her coaching style was widely reckoned as one of the toughest coaches in college basketball history, men’s or women’s. It was best known for giving her players an icy stare in response to poor play but claimed that she mellowed considerably later in her career.
Summitt wrote three books, all with co-author Sally Jenkins: “Reach for the Summitt” which is part a motivational book and part biography, “Raise the Roofabout the Lady Vols ‘1997–1998 undefeated and “NCAA’-championship winning season, and Sum It Up, covering her life including her experience being diagnosed and living with Alzheimer’s disease.
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