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Pat Summitt (born Patricia Head on June 14, 1952 in Clarksville, Tennessee) is a women's college basketball coach. She is the coach of the University of Tennessee Lady Vols. Of her 30 years as a coach, 29 have been spent as coach of the Lady Vols.
As a player at the University of Tennessee-Martin, Summitt was an All American and member of the 1976 Olympic basketball team.
In the 1997-1998 tournament, her team went undefeated the entire season, winning all 30 regular and 9 tournament games, earning Summitt's fifth championship. Summitt and her team were then the subject of an HBO documentary, and some sportswriters called considered that year's team the greatest team ever in college women's basketball.
In 2003, Summitt joined a handful of coaches that have claimed 800 or more career victories in NCAA basketball. She became the fastest coach to reach that milestone.
In addition to her 800 plus wins, she has six national championships and 22 conference titles with the Lady Vols. She has taken her team 14 times to the Final Four, and she was named coach of the year in 1993, 1995 and 1998. She was also named the Naismith Coach of the Century. When she made her 12th trip to the Final Four as a coach in 2002, she surpassed John Wooden as the NCAA coach with the most trips to the Final Four.
In 1999, Summitt was inducted with the inaugural class to the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame. In 2000, she joined Isiah Thomas as part of the then newest group of inductees into the Basketball Hall of Fame.
Most recently, Summitt took her team to the championship game again in 2004, this time losing 70 to 61 to the UConn Huskies.
External links
- coachsummitt.com (http://www.coachsummitt.com/0304season/2003index.html)
- utladyvols.com (http://utladyvols.ocsn.com/sports/w-baskbl/tennw-w-baskbl-body.html)
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