Longtime Tennessee Women's Pat Summit Steps Down

Pat Summitt steps down at Tennessee - chicagotribune.com



Former Tennessee head coach Pat Summitt

Longtime Tennessee women's head coach Pat Summit has decided to step down from the program due to the early onset of dementia which she announced to the public in August 2011.  Even though she's stepping aside from drawing plays and calling timeouts during the game, she won't be out of the basketball arena altogether.  She will remain with Tennessee as "head coach emeritus" where she'll be a liasion between the basketball program and athletic department.  She will remain involved with on-campus recruiting and continue to interact with members of the program.  Summit, who turns 60 in June, will hand over the reins to longtime assistant Holly Warlick, who's been an assistant at Tennessee since 1985.  Warlick also played on Summitt's first Tennesee team. 

Pat Summitt has been the face of women's college basketball ever since women's sports has been revitalized with Richard Nixon's signing of Title IX, which allowed girls and women to play sports in high school and college.  Summit, who was know as Pat Head when she first became the women's head coach at Tennessee, has had a very successful career at the school.  She's the all-time winningest coach of both men and women.  Summitt ends her career with a record 1098 wins, two shy of 1100.  She had 208 losses.  She has won eight national titles in her 38 year career for the Lady Vols.  She won back-to-back championships on two different occasions, the first time from the years 1996-98.  In 1998 the Lady Vols had a 39-0 undefeated championship season.  They won back-to-back titles the second time from 2007-08.  2008 was the last year Summitt won a national championship.  She has also competed in more Final Fours in NCAA history than any particular coach.  In 2002 she surpassed former UCLA head coach John Wooden in all time Final Four appearances.  She was a player on the 1976 U.S. Olympic team that won a Silver medal in Montreal.  She was a coach of the 1984 team that won Gold in Los Angeles. 

To read the full story about the storied career of Pat Summit, click on the above link from the Chicago Tribune.