Tuesday, June 28, 2016 | Women's Basketball, Scott Carter
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By: Scott Carter, Senior Writer
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – If you grew up in Tennessee and played women's basketball like Gators coach Amanda Butler did, there was no escaping the enormous shadow that Lady Vols coach Pat Summitt cast across the Volunteer State.
In many ways it was a great anomaly, an SEC school with a women's basketball coach equally or more famous than the head football coach. But in Tennessee, they could always count on Summitt to deliver when the football team had a bad season or two.
She won and won and won.
"Her
Gators coach Amanda Butler grew up in Tennessee. (File photo)
impact goes beyond age groups, gender and even basketball,'' Butler said Tuesday after news broke that the 64-year-old Summitt had died from early-onset Alzheimer's disease. "Everyone knew Pat because she was successful, but more importantly she stood for all the right things: character, toughness, discipline, hard work."
If you lived in East Tennessee like I did until I was 12, you remember seeing Summitt on the local news and her picture in the newspaper and you wondered why she seemed to be everywhere. You later learned she was a big deal, a Tennessee treasure that the folks who call those hills home respected and admired and took immense pride in.
She was known nationally in a region where some rarely cross county lines. Summitt was a pioneer, perhaps the most important figure in the history of women's college basketball.
Many years after I first learned who she was and why she was important, I covered her final national championship in 2008. The Lady Vols defeated Stanford in the championship game in Tampa and the next morning, Summitt had a press conference with her five starters, including star Candace Parker.
She looked tired and bleary-eyed but with her sense of humor intact.
"I'm not going to be nearly as smart next year,'' she said.
It was Summitt's eighth and final championship at Tennessee. Less than three years later, Summitt made her final appearance at the O'Connell Center, an 80-43 victory over the Gators on Jan. 13, 2011. A little more than seven months later – Aug. 23, 2011 – Summitt announced her Alzheimer's diagnosis.
Goodbye, my friend. You made me better. You made us all better. Thank you. Rest in Peace, Pat. pic.twitter.com/1BvXwA2SA6
She coached the 2011-12 season with extra help from her staff but turned her attention to fighting her disease and the "We Back Pat" initiative, a movement to bring awareness to the Pat Summitt Foundation in its fight against Alzheimer's disease.
Her organization's website had this quote atop Summitt's obituary Tuesday morning: "You win in life with people"
Summitt won and won and won.
"She valued people and embraced the platform that basketball gave her,'' Butler said. "She was the ultimate leader, a hero, inspiration and role model. My heart goes out to her family and everyone in Big Orange Country."
If you lived in East Tennessee like I did until I was 12, you remember seeing Summitt on the local news and her picture in the newspaper and you wondered why she seemed to be everywhere. You later learned she was a big deal, a Tennessee treasure that the folks who call those hills home respected and admired and took immense pride in.
