Evansville, Ind.–Pat Head Summitt, who starred at the University of Tennessee at Martin before becoming one of the most successful basketball coaches in the history of the sport, will be recognized as an Ohio Valley Conference Basketball Legend at the league championship tournament in Evansville, Ind. on March 6-9.
The OVC announced its 2019 legends class today, as this marks the fifth consecutive season that the league honors basketball legends from its 12 member institutions. The legends will be recognized through signage, public address announcements and a game program feature story during the conference tournament held at the Ford Center. Summitt joins Heather Butler (2015), Lester Hudson (2016), Jasmine Newsome (2017) and Jared Newson (2018) as past Skyhawks who have been identified as OVC basketball legends.
Summitt played basketball at UT Martin for head coach Nadine Gearin from 1970-74. She led the then-Lady Pacers to a combined 64-30 record, two AIAW district tournament championships, one AIAW Tennessee state tournament title, one AIAW regional championship and an appearance in the 1972 AIAW national tournament.
A native of Ashland City, Tenn., Summitt left UT Martin as the program’s all-time leading scorer with 1,405 points. Despite the fact that she was limited to just seven games during her senior season, she still ranks in the top-10 of five different single-season or career record categories.
Literally months after Summitt graduated from UT Martin with a degree in physical education, she took over as head women’s basketball coaching at the University of Tennessee in 1974. It was there where she established herself as one of the best coaches in the history of basketball.
Over 38 seasons, Summitt posted a 1,098-208 record for an .840 winning percentage. Her 1,098 victories are the second-most for any coach in Division-I basketball history, trailing only Duke head men’s basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski. She helped guide the Lady Volunteers to eight NCAA national championships and a total of 32 Southeastern Conference tournament and regular season titles. In addition, Summitt compiled a 100 percent graduation rate for all Lady Vols who exhausted their eligibility at Tennessee.
In 2009, the Sporting News named Summitt the 11th greatest coach of all-time in any sport, as she was the only female to appear on their top-50 list. In 1999, she was inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame and she followed that with an inclusion into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2000. She notched 112 NCAA Tournament wins and 18 NCAA Final Four appearances in her head coaching career.
Summitt was diagnosed with early onset dementia in 2011 and fought a courageous battle against the disease before passing away in June 2016. She was 64 years old.
Menu
