Women of
the Halls of Fame
Female Coach
Born: June 14,1952
Birthplace: Henrietta, Tennessee
Year Inducted: 1999
Pat Head Summitt has had an amazing career in women’s basketball, both as a player and a coach. She played for the University of Tennessee-Martin from 1970-74, where she ended her career as the University’s all-time leading scorer. She had also led her team to the national championship two out of the four years she played. In 1973, she was a member of the U.S. team in the World Games, where she won a silver medal. She was also co-captain of the 1976 Olympic Team, where she again won a silver medal.
Summitt’s coaching career is even more impressive. She has been the head coach for the University of Tennessee for over 30 years, during which she has accumulated 882 wins and only 172 losses. She has led her team to the Final Four fourteen times, and won six NCAA Championships. The most impressive of these wins came in the 1997-98 season, when Summitt’s team ended the season with a perfect record of 39-0. Over the years, her team has also won eight titles during the regular season and nine tourney crowns in the postseason in their conference.
Summitt has seen multiple excellent seasons as the head coach at the University of Tennessee. Nearly half of the seasons she has coached, her team won 30 or more games and in 29 consecutive seasons, her team won at least 20 games. She has broken the records for the youngest coach ever to reach 300, 400, 500, 600, 700, and 800 victories. In 2003, she became the only women’s coach to ever reach 800 wins, and in 2005, she broke the record for all time wins (then held by Dean Smith), which was 880.
In 1979, Summitt helped direct her team to win gold medals in both the Jones Cup and the Pan Am Games. She also coached the USA women’s basketball team in 1984, which won the United States’ first ever gold medal in women’s basketball. By the 2003-04 season, Summitt had coached 11 U.S. Olympians, 17 Kodak All-Americas, and 25 professional players.
Over the course of her career, Summitt has received multiple awards and recognitions, such as the Naismith Women’s Coach of the Century, Naismith College Coach of the Year (four times), WBCA/Converse Coach of the Year (twice), IKON/WBCA Coach of the Year, SEC Coach of the Year (three times), and the Basketball Hall of Fame’s John Bunn Award. She was also honored with three Victor Awards, a Casey Award, the Governor Ned McWherter Award of Excellence and was inducted into the National Association for Sport and Physical Education’s Hall of Fame. These are only some of the many honors that Summitt has earned throughout her amazing career.