Pat Summitt
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Pat Summitt (born Patricia Sue Head on June 14, 1952 in Clarksville, Tennessee) is the most successful Division I college basketball coach of all time. She is the coach of the Tennessee Lady Vols. She currently finished her 32nd year of coaching, all with the Lady Vols. Her career coaching record with the Lady Vols is 913-177.
As a player at the University of Tennessee-Martin, Summitt was an All American and co-captain of the 1976 Olympic basketball team.
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[edit] Coaching milestones
In 2003, Summitt joined a handful of coaches that have claimed 800 or more career victories in NCAA basketball. She became the fastest coach to reach that milestone.
On March 22, 2005, Summitt became the all-time leader for games won among NCAA Division I basketball coaches, men's as well as women's, when her number-one seed Lady Vols defeated ninth-seed Purdue in the second round of the 2005 NCAA women's basketball tournament. It was her 880th win as a coach, breaking North Carolina men's coach Dean Smith's former record of 879.
On January 19, 2006, she won her 900th game, an 80-68 win over Vanderbilt University.
In May 2006, she became the first coach of women's college basketball to earn $1 million per year.
[edit] Tournament record
Pat Summitt has six national championships, which is the most among all coaches. She also has 24 Southeastern Conference tournament and regular season titles with the Lady Vols. She has taken her team 16 times to the NCAA Final Four, and she was named SEC coach of the year in 1993, 1995, 1998, 2001, 2003, and 2004. She was named NCAA Coach of the Year in 1983, 1987, 1989, 1994, 1998, and 2004. She was also named the Naismith Coach of the Century. When she made her 13th trip to the Final Four as a coach in 2002, she surpassed John Wooden as the NCAA coach with the most trips to the Final Four.
In the 1997-1998 tournament, her team went undefeated the entire season, winning all 30 regular and 9 tournament games, earning Summitt's fifth championship. Some sportswriters considered that year's team the greatest team ever in college women's basketball. This was the third consecutive championship for the Lady Vols, and the third for heralded players Chamique Holdsclaw and Kellie Jolly (now Harper). Holdsclaw was named a consensus All-American, as was freshman Tamika Catchings.
The UConn Huskies are the only other team to repeat the feat (from 2002-2004), a streak which also included a 39-0 undefeated season in 2002. The Huskies' championships in both 2003 and 2004 came at Tenneesee's expense in the championship game.
Summitt and the 1996-1997 championship team were the subject of an HBO documentary titled "A Cinderella Season: The Lady Vols Fight Back". That year, the Lady Vols posted just a 23-10 record heading into the NCAA tournament, with two losses to Louisiana Tech, setbacks against national powers Georgia, Stanford and UConn, but also shocking losses to SEC lesser lights Arkansas, Auburn, and LSU (which was 7-20 just two seasons prior and had not yet established itself as a perennial national power). However, Tennessee righted itself during the tournament, shocking previously undefeated UConn in the regional final, 91-81, before defeating Notre Dame and Old Dominion in the Final Four in Cincinnati.
Summitt took her team to the championship game again in 2004, this time losing 70-61 to the UConn Huskies. The rivalry with UConn is one of the most heated in college sports.
[edit] Honors
In 1999, Summitt was inducted with the inaugural class to the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame. In 2000, she joined Isiah Thomas as inductees into the Basketball Hall of Fame.
Summitt is the only person to have two courts used by NCAA Division I basketball teams named in her honor: "Pat Head Summitt Court" at the University of Tennessee-Martin, and "The Summitt" at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville.
She also has a street named after her, "Pat Head Summitt Street," on the University of Tennessee-Knoxville campus.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
| Current Head Women's Basketball Coaches of the Southeastern Conference |
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Melanie Balcomb (Vanderbilt) | Pokey Chatman (LSU) | Mickie DeMoss (Kentucky) | Sharon Fanning (Mississippi State) | Nell Fortner (Auburn) | Susie Gardner (Arkansas) | Andy Landers (Georgia) | Carolyn Peck (Florida) | Carol Ross (Ole Miss) | Stephany Smith (Alabama) | Pat Summitt (Tennessee) | Susan Walvius (South Carolina) | |
| Preceded by Gary Hall, Sr. Lawrie Mifflin Drew Pearson Cynthia Potter Sally Ride Harry Smith |
Silver Anniversary Awards (NCAA) Class of 1999 Dave Casper Anita DeFrantz Pat Summitt Lynn Swann Robert R. Thomas Bill Walton |
Succeeded by Dianne Baker Junior Bridgeman Pat Haden Lisa Rosenblum John Dickson Stufflebeem John Trembley |
Categories: Articles lacking sources from December 2006 | All articles lacking sources | 1952 births | Living people | American basketball coaches | Basketball Hall of Fame | American basketball players | Olympic competitors for the United States | Basketball players at the 1976 Summer Olympics | People from Tennessee | Tennessee Lady Vols basketball coaches | Women's Basketball Hall of Fame | People from Knoxville, Tennessee
