Summit, Pat

Summit, Pat (Patricia Sue Summit), 1952–2016, American basketball player and coach, b. Clarksville, Tenn., as Patricia Sue Head. She played basketball at the Univ. of Tennessee at Martin, and upon graduation (1974), was hired as an assistant women's basketball coach at the Univ. of Tenn. at Knoxville. When the head coach retired shortly before the season began, she became head coach of the Lady Vols. Her teams won the Southeastern Conference tournament 16 times and played in every National Collegiate Athletic Association national tournament from 1982 until her retirement, appearing in the Final Four 18 times and winning eight NCAA championships. She retired in 2012, having been diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's disease. Summit had more wins (1,098) than any NCAA college basketball coach in history. She also coached the U.S. women's team to their first gold medal in the 1984 Olympic Games. Summit was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 1999 and the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2000.

See her Reach for the Summit (1999, with S. Jenkins) and Sum It Up (2013, with S. Jenkins).

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