Pat Summitt

I have two memories of Pat Summitt when I was at Alabama.

I called the UT athletic office to interview her for a preview for the Lady Vols' annual visit to Tuscaloosa. They told me Coach Summitt would call me back later that day. My thought was "I'm just a nobody student journalist, so there's no way she calls me back."
Wrong. I'm in the Wal-Mart and my phone rings with an unfamiliar number. I answer and it was her. Fortunately, I had my notes in the car and had an enjoyable and insightful 20-minute conversation. It's not every day you get a call in Wal-Mart from a legend.

When I interviewed her at the SEC preseason tipoff event in Birmingham, we finished our interview and I walked with her into the dining room. When she entered the noisy banquet room, the noise level dropped 20 decibels at least out of respect.

Another anecdote, I was covering the UT-Alabama women's game after writing that advance and UT was up 40 points on Alabama. A ball flies out of bounds and one of the UT players dives after it, even though the game was well in hand. I thought if she can coach her players to play with that level of effort and intensity when the game is no longer in doubt...she must be the best basketball coach who ever lived.

She was a total class act too. She graduated every one of her players, which is something that gets lost in the wins and losses. There's a whole generation out there of women who were inspired by Coach Summitt to greatness and that's really her true legacy.

 

I don't like the Volunteers.
I grew to love Pat Summit.

That's how great she was.

 

When the Lady Vols played at Local University, the crowd gave Summitt a standing ovation as she walked to the bench before the game, which I thought was a well-deserved and classy act on the crowd's part.

 

Pretty interesting list of people she impacted:

World takes to social media to mourn Pat Summitt's death, celebrate her legacy

 

Well, that kind of ruins that anecdote .

 

You should have heard her blistering tirade to her players during a timeout in the second half of the 1998 NCAA title game, after they had the audacity to suffer a letdown that allowed Louisiana Tech to close within 18.

 

Back when it was safe for women to play at La. Tech.

 

You got to see one of the close ones. Bama virtually never came within the same area code as Summitt's teams (this past winter, it beat the Lady Vols for the first time since 1984.) The Tide had its only Final Four team my freshman year and still got blown out twice by UT. The Lady Vols were just in a different orbit, like one of those sports car races where everyone's on the track but the most advanced models have their own category and you don't bother comparing your entry to theirs.

 

"It's not done until it's done right!"

 

That wasn't the last time a Summitt wanted to keep pounding the Lady Techsters.

 

When I interned at the Knoxville News-Sentinel in the early 80s, the paper rarely went on the road with the Lady Vols. Pat would call the paper after the games, and her and our LV reporter --- Mike Siroky --- would shoot the shit for a half hour or so. The KNS was a PM then, so there were no pressing deadline issues.

 

I'm not familiar much with the impact of Alzheimer's so this may be a no-shit observation, but I noticed in the recent photos of her that her face looked ... different. Her stare was gone. That was her hallmark.