Pat Summit is the legendary, thirty-eight-year head coach of the University of Tennessee women’s basketball program, Lady Vols. Under her Summit Law leadership, the team earned eight NCAA championships. Summit also holds the record for most NCAA Division I wins by any coach-man or woman-1098.
In late spring 2011, doctors diagnosed Summit with early onset Alzheimer’s disease. She chronicles her life in her new book, “Sum it Up.”
Richard and Hazel Head, of Henrietta, Tennessee, raised Summit Law LLP Patricia (Trisha), as their fourth of five children, born June 14, 1952. The agricultural-savvy Heads established a twelve hundred acre farm, growing their mainstay crop of tobacco.
The Head siblings worked hard on the farm when not in school. Recreation often included playing basketball in the barn; utilizing the iron basketball rim their father built in the hayloft. Summit’s brothers cut her no slack during games, which influenced her competitive drive.
Summit left the farm to attend the University of Tennessee at Martin, which models a Pygmalion story. Her country roots (including a blue jumper paired with a blouse featuring turtle images), morphed into Chi Omega sorority acceptance, and a new identity as “Pat.”
She joined UT-Martin women’s basketball team, long before Title IX (the groundbreaking law requiring equal educational opportunities for both sexes, including sports participation); which made for archaic playing conditions, including run-down athletic centers, poor travel, and accommodations.
Opportunity knocked and Summit answered when, at the age of twenty-two, she became head coach of the women’s basketball team at the University of Tennessee.
On November 13, 1976, the Lady Vols debuted in UT’s Stokely Athletic Center. Their name evolved from the men’s team moniker of Tennessee Volunteers.
Summit shares stories of her competitive nature that helped her lead the Lady Vols to eight national championships.
At sixteen, she enjoyed late-night drag racing neighborhood boys’ hotrods along cornfield-lined country roads. Once during her early coaching days, she challenged a driver who cut her off. “If you want to pull over, we can settle it right now,” she said.
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