Let's Hear It For Pat Summitt

I have been alive for nearly 25 years and during that time and during that time there have been few things that remained constant from that day in August of 1987 through 2012... until now that is. Pat Summitt, Head Coach of the University of Tennessee Lady Volunteers officially stepped down from said position today. 8 months ago, Summitt was diagnosed with early-onset dementia, a pre-cursor of Alzheimer's. She finished out the 2011-12 season albeit in a reduced role but nor before stating "There's not going to be any pity party and I'll make sure of that." She was also named Sports Illustrated's 2011 Sportswoman of the Year.

I can probably go on at length enumerating Pat Summitt's cavalcade of accomplishments over her career but I feel that listing only a few will tell a greater story. She is the only men's or women's coach in the history of the NCAA Division I with 1,000 victories (1,098 to be exact). She won 8 National Titles at Tennessee, the most ever by a women's coach and second in the NCAA only to John Wooden of UCLA. She was elected to the inaugural class of the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 1999 prior to being elected to the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame in 2000. However to me the most important honor that she garnered was being named one of the Sporting News'  2009 50 Greatest Coaches of All Time (encompassing the NFL, NHL, NBA, MLB, NCAA Football and NCAA Basketball), ranked at no. 11 overall and becoming the only woman to crack the list. There had been an NCAA Women's National Tournament for 31 years, Summitt's Lady Vols went to every single one of those tournaments (reaching the Sweet 16 every year from the 81-82 season until the 2007-08 season).

In short Pat Summitt took the game of women's basketball from a fringe sport in the 1970s akin to bowling and dodgeball and made it something worth televising nationally all season long. Personally I never really thought much about the women's game until Summitt stepped down today which made me realize that I've never seen one single person influence a game like Summitt did for women's basketball. Sportscenter did a touching piece on her career and if you have the chance to read this blog before the end of April 19th then tune into ESPN whenever you get the chance, they did Summitt more justice that I could ever hope to.