Pat Summitt

Pat Summitt was an American women’s basketball head coach who coached the University of Tennessee Lady Vols team for close to 40 years. Born and raised in Clarksville, Tennessee, she played basketball all through her teenage years and attended the University of Tennessee in the early 1970s. All her brothers went to colleges on scholarship but Pat had to pay as women basketball was not very popular in America in those days. She began her coaching career working as a graduate assistant at the University of Tennessee and was named the head coach sometime later when the previous head coach suddenly quit. Soon, her hard-work began showing from the second season onwards as the team began performing well in back to back seasons. In the mid-1970s, she led her team to win back to back AIAW Region II Championships. She was also a part of the American women’s basketball team and won a silver medal for her country at the 1976 Summer Olympics. Before she retired, she had scored 1,098 career wins with her team, which was the highest by any coach in the history of women’s basketball. She passed away in June 2016, at the age of 64.