When Pat Summitt became the head coach of the University of Tennessee women's basketball team in 1974, she was 22 years old — barely older than some of her players. She drove the team van, washed uniforms and coached games in front of tiny crowds. When she stepped down 38 years later, she had won eight national championships and more games than any college basketball coach in history at the time, man or woman.
Her story is the story of how women's college basketball grew up.
The early years
Summitt grew up on a farm in Tennessee, where she learned to play basketball against her older brothers. She was a strong player herself, and she was co-captain of the U.S. team that won silver at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal, the first Olympic women's basketball tournament — while she was already coaching at Tennessee.
In the 1970s, women's college basketball operated on a shoestring. Title IX, passed in 1972, required schools receiving federal funding to provide equal opportunities for women, but change came slowly. Summitt fought for resources at every step, building the program almost from scratch.
Building a power
Tennessee became a national contender in the late 1970s and early 1980s, competing in the tournaments run by the AIAW, which organized women's college championships before the NCAA took over in 1982. The breakthrough came in 1987, when the Lady Vols won Summitt's first NCAA championship.
More followed: titles in 1989 and 1991, then a remarkable run of three straight from 1996 to 1998. The 1997–98 team, led by Chamique Holdsclaw, finished 39–0, one of the most dominant seasons in the sport's history. Tennessee added two more championships in 2007 and 2008, the second led by Candace Parker.
That made eight NCAA titles, along with a long list of Final Four appearances and conference championships.
The players
Summitt's teams were built around stars who became the faces of their eras. Chamique Holdsclaw, a dazzling forward from New York, led Tennessee to three consecutive national titles from 1996 to 1998 and is widely considered one of the greatest college players ever. Tamika Catchings, who later became a WNBA champion and MVP, played alongside her on the unbeaten 1997–98 team.
A decade later came Candace Parker, a versatile forward who could handle the ball like a guard. In 2006 she became the first woman to dunk in an NCAA tournament game, and she led Tennessee to back-to-back titles in 2007 and 2008. Summitt's ability to recruit and develop players like these kept Tennessee at the top for more than two decades.
The stare
Summitt was famous for her intensity, and for one look in particular: an icy stare she aimed at players who made mistakes, officials who made questionable calls and anyone who failed to meet her standards. "The Stare" became part of her legend.
But her former players described a coach who cared about far more than winning. She was strict about class attendance, and her players graduated at a very high rate. Players who completed their eligibility at Tennessee were expected to finish their degrees, and those who did were held up as part of the program's success.
The rivalry
In the 1990s and 2000s, Tennessee's rivalry with the University of Connecticut, coached by Geno Auriemma, became the biggest in women's college basketball. The two programs met in national championship games and regular-season showdowns that drew large television audiences and helped raise the profile of the entire sport. The regular-season series paused after 2007. In August 2018, the schools announced plans to resume it in the 2019–20 season.
Together, Tennessee and UConn showed that women's college basketball could generate the kind of passion and attention once reserved for men's programs.
Olympic coach
Summitt's influence also reached the national team. In 1984 she was the head coach of the U.S. women's team at the Los Angeles Olympics, where the Americans won gold. She became one of the few people to win an Olympic medal as a player and then lead a gold-medal team as a coach — eight years after playing in the first Olympic women's tournament.
The final chapter
In 2011, Summitt announced that she had been diagnosed with early-onset dementia, Alzheimer's type. She coached one more season, with her longtime assistant Holly Warlick taking on more responsibilities, and then stepped down in 2012 with 1,098 victories.
She spent her remaining years raising awareness and funds for Alzheimer's research through a foundation bearing her name. She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012. Pat Summitt died in June 2016, at the age of 64.
Her legacy
Summitt's achievements are measured in numbers — eight titles, 38 seasons, more than a thousand wins — but her real legacy is broader. She helped turn women's basketball from an afterthought into a sport with packed arenas, national television contracts and professional opportunities. Many of her players became coaches, executives and leaders in their own right.
At Tennessee, the court is named "The Summitt," and a statue of her stands outside the arena. For a coach who started out washing her team's uniforms, it is a fitting tribute.
