Pat Summitt
Basketball coach Pat Summitt is praised as one of the 50 greatest of all time.
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Tennessee head coach Pat Summitt waves to the fans after Tennessee defeated LSU 70-58 to win the NCAA college basketball championship game at the women's Southeastern Conference tournament on Sunday, March 4, 2012, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)
Basketball coach Pat Summitt is praised as one of the 50 greatest of all time.
Her tough no-nonsense style led her team, the Lady Vols at the University of Tennessee, to compile more wins than any other Division I college women’s basketball.
Summit played for the University of Tennessee from 1970 to 1974 and a year after, won gold at the Panamerican Games. That led her to become co-captain of the US Olympic team and to win a Silver Medal in Montreal.
And that’s not all, in 1987, soon after earning her 300th win, she guided the Lady Vols to their first NCAA championship. Her teams went on to claim seven more national titles.
During her 38-year coaching career, Summitt, who died in 2016, received numerous honors. She was named NCAA Coach of the Year seven times and in 2000 College Coach of the Century. To top it all, in 2012, Summitt was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Her memoir, Sum It Up, was published the following year.
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