Pat Summitt, late head coach for UT’s women’s basketball team, is set to be honored as an Ohio Valley Conference basketball legend during the conference tournament March 6-9.
Summitt, who started her 38 year coaching career here at UTM back in 1974 just months after graduating, went on to hold a career record of 1,094-208, making her one of the greatest collegiate basketball coaches of all time. She acquired several awards throughout her career, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Barack Obama and the Arthur Ashe Courage Award.
Summitt will be honored as part of the 2019 legends class, following Skyhawks Heather Butler (2015), Lester Hudson (2016), Jasmine Newsome (2017) and Jared Newson (2018). Each year a player is nominated from every university within the Ohio Valley Conference. The ceremony will be held during the OVC tournament in Evansville during which Summitt will be honored by public address announcements and a feature story that will be shown in the Ford Center.
The Pacer spoke with Alex Boggis of Sports Information about the legacy of Summitt and the decision to nominate her as this year’s OVC legend.
“(The decision came based on Summitt) making very little money, but building a program that really succeeded, won national titles for Tennessee and really gave women’s basketball and women’s sports as a whole a voice, when there wasn’t much of one before that,” Boggis said.
According to Boggis the choice to nominate Summitt as a legend comes from a variety of qualifications.
“Even though she played here when we weren’t a member of the Ohio Valley Conference she’s done such great things for our institution, as a member of the OVC we want to recognize her.”
As a student at UTM, Summitt played for head coach Nadine Gearin from 1970-1974 leading the Lady Pacers to a combined 64-30 record. Months after her graduation, she became head coach of women’s basketball for the University of Tennessee after the previous coach suddenly quit, and the rest is history.
Summitt passed away in June 2016 following a battle with early onset dementia at age 68.
