Summitt, Pat (1952-2016), was one of the most successful coaches in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) basketball history. She won 1,098 games and lost only 208 during her 38-year career. In February 2009, Summitt became the first NCAA coach to win 1,000 games. Summitt spent her entire career as women’s coach at the University of Tennessee, starting in 1974 when she was a 22-year-old graduate teaching assistant. Her teams won eight NCAA championships, in 1987, 1989, 1991, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2007, and 2008.
Patricia Sue Head was born in Henrietta, Tennessee, on June 14, 1952. She married R. B. Summitt, a bank executive, in 1980. She starred in basketball while attending the University of Tennessee at Martin. She graduated in 1974 with a B.S. degree in physical education and received an M.S. degree in physical education in 1975 from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.
Summitt was co-captain of the United States team that won the silver medal at the 1976 Summer Olympic Games and coached the United States team that won the gold medal at the 1984 Olympics. In 2000, she was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and was honored as the Naismith Coach of the 20th Century in women’s basketball.
Summitt stepped down as head coach at Tennessee in 2012 after being diagnosed with early onset dementia, Alzheimer’s type. She discussed her condition in the autobiography Sum It Up: A Thousand and Ninety-Eight Victories, a Couple of Irrelevant Losses, and a Life in Perspective (2013). Summitt died on June 28, 2016.
