The youngest team Coach Patricia Sue Head Summitt has ever coached pulled together and looked like a steady ship tonight. Glory Johnson, who was clearly UP for the game, lead a balanced scoring attack by all the Lady Vols with 20 points. And when it was all said and done, the youngsters beat Georgia 73-43 and gave their coach her 1000th career victory. Summitt is now the most winning D-I coach of all time, women or men.
Immediately after the game, Summitt was pulled to the side for an interview. On camera, Alicia Manning and Alex Fuller ran up behind her with a huge Gatorade bucket filled with.......sparkling confetti. Whew! They had everyone going for a minute.
Summitt got a whole bunch of stuff: a star on a walk in Knoxville, posters, paintings, and some "bling," according to the announcer. She also gets a contract extension and some bonuses:
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncw/news/story?id=3887808
Summitt said even she was having trouble comprehending it. I know I sure am. She has been coaching since I was in second grade. Since before disco and when Michael Jackson was still part of the Jackson 5.
She was very gracious in crediting her staff and players past and present. But one of the commentators pointed out that this was nice, but the credit belonged to the coach who has won 84 percent of all the games she's coached.
84 percent?
There will never be another like her.
The press is surprisingly slow to put anything online this evening, so for right now the best bet is on utladyvols.com. There's a nice picture of Summitt with "congrats" wording above it. Behind the main picture are pictures from throughout Summitt's career - it's a trip. Then when you skip to the regular page there's a picture of Fuller and Manning dumping the confetti on her head.
Tomorrow on ESPN Classic, they're running a Pat Summitt marathon. Here's the schedule:
6am-8am 1987 National Championship: Louisiana Tech vs Tennessee
8am-10am 1989 National Championship: Auburn vs Tennessee
10am-12pm 1991 National Championship: Tennessee vs Virginia
12pm-2pm 1996 National Championship: Tennessee vs Georgia
2pm-4pm 1997 National Championship: Old Dominion vs Tennessee
4pm-6pm 1998 National Championship: Tennessee vs Louisiana Tech
6pm-8pm 2007 National Championship: Rutgers vs Tennessee
8pm-10pm 2008 National Championship: Stanford vs Tennessee
10pm-12am Georgia vs Tennessee from Feb 5, 2009 - Win #1,000
Congrats, Coach Summitt. I only have one hero besides Harriett Tubman, and that is you.
2 comments:
Congratulations to Pat Summit.. Wow.. 1000 wins.. That’s really something.. That means she really is a good coach.. or maybe excellent!!
Yeah, most definitely excellent, in every sense of the word.
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