Reactions have been pouring in both locally and nationally to the news that legendary Lady Vols coach Pat Summitt passed away on Tuesday morning. Here are some statements and tweets from around the nation:
Former UT quarterback Peyton Manning:
“I’ve always been honored to call Pat Summitt my friend. She was always very supportive of my career and I enjoyed seeing her back at a Tennessee football game or when she would come to Indianapolis to see Tamika Catchings play. We would always get together and I made it a point when I came to Knoxville to visit with her.
“She was one of the people I consulted with following my junior year when I was deciding whether to turn pro early or stay in college. She gave me some very valuable advice during that time. My teammates and I went to a lot of Lady Vols games when we were in school, and I really enjoyed watching her teams play.
“I just always appreciated Pat’s friendship and support. I was always impressed with how all of her former players spoke about her. You speak to people like Tamika Catchings or Chamique Holdsclaw, and they just talk about the role that Pat played in all their lives on and off the court. You can just tell the impact that she had on those players.
“It would have been a great experience to play for her. She could have coached any team, any sport, men’s or women’s. It wouldn’t have mattered because Pat could flat out coach. I will miss her dearly, and I am honored to call her my friend. My thoughts and prayers are with Tyler and their entire family.”
Former UT football coach Phillip Fulmer:
“Pat Summitt was many things to many people. Pat was a great person, loving mother, passionate coach, and loyal friend. We shared a lot of years working together and spreading the word about Tennessee Athletics. We had wonderful personal times talking about life, our respective teams, or helping each other recruit. Her legacy as a basketball coach is iconic, but her greatest legacy may well be through The Pat Summitt Foundation and her role in leading the battle against Alzheimer’s!”
Tennessee AD Dave Hart:
“We are deeply saddened by today’s news of Pat Summitt’s passing. We send our deepest condolences to her son, Tyler, and to her family and friends.
“Pat Summitt is synonymous with Tennessee, but she truly is a global icon who transcended sports and spent her entire life making a difference in other peoples’ lives. She was a genuine, humble leader who focused on helping people achieve more than they thought they were capable of accomplishing. Pat was so much more than a Hall of Fame coach; she was a mother, mentor, leader, friend, humanitarian and inspiration to so many. Her legacy will live on through the countless people she touched throughout her career.”
President Barack Obama:
“Nobody walked off a college basketball court victorious more times than Tennessee’s Pat Summitt. For four decades, she outworked her rivals, made winning an attitude, loved her players like family, and became a role model to millions of Americans, including our two daughters. Her unparalleled success includes never recording a losing season in 38 years of coaching, but also, and more importantly, a 100 percent graduation rate among her players who completed their athletic eligibility. Her legacy, however, is measured much more by the generations of young women and men who admired Pat’s intense competitiveness and character, and as a result found in themselves the confidence to practice hard, play harder, and live with courage on and off the court. As Pat once said in recalling her achievements, ‘What I see are not the numbers. I see their faces.’
“Pat learned early on that everyone should be treated the same. When she would play basketball against her older brothers in the family barn, they didn’t treat her any differently and certainly didn’t go easy on her. Later, her Hall of Fame career would tell the story of the historic progress toward equality in American athletics that she helped advance. Pat started playing college hoops before Title IX and started coaching before the NCAA recognized women’s basketball as a sport. When she took the helm at Tennessee as a 22-year-old, she had to wash her players’ uniforms; by the time Pat stepped down as the Lady Vols’ head coach, her teams wore eight championship rings and had cut down nets in sold-out stadiums.
“Pat was a patriot who earned Olympic medals for America as a player and a coach, and I was honored to award her the Presidential Medal of Freedom. She was a proud Tennessean who, when she went into labor while on a recruiting visit, demanded the pilot return to Knoxville so her son could be born in her home state. And she was an inspiring fighter. Even after Alzheimer’s started to soften her memory, and she began a public and brave fight against that terrible disease, Pat had the grace and perspective to remind us that ‘God doesn’t take things away to be cruel. … He takes things away to lighten us. He takes things away so we can fly.'”
“Michelle and I send our condolences to Pat Summitt’s family – which includes her former players and fans on Rocky Top and across America.”
Tennessee football coach Butch Jones
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the family and friends of Pat Summitt. I had the privilege of spending time with Pat during my first year at Tennessee, and those are conversations I will cherish forever. When you think of all the great coaches in all sports, Pat Summitt is at the top of that list.
“As a coach, I stand in awe of Pat and what she accomplished on and off the court. She is someone I admired when I decided I wanted to get into coaching. You study all the great coaches, the traits that made them successful, and you try to incorporate those into your own program and teams. She demanded excellence and her teams played to her personality.
“It was about more than basketball for her, it was about life. She wanted every player that left the program to be prepared for the next stage of their life. Every player received a degree, and that was as important to her as any win on the court. She wouldn’t settle for anything but the best effort on the court and in the classroom.”
https://twitter.com/HollyWarlick/status/747750727028711424
We have lost one of the greatest Tennesseans of all time. My full statement on Pat Summitt: https://t.co/GuynJE23RP pic.twitter.com/nmlxtbj01M
— Bill Haslam (@BillHaslam) June 28, 2016
The passing of a Legend. @patsummitt your impact on the game will never be forgotten. https://t.co/BPTLjW59JM
— Coach Steve Spurrier (@SteveSpurrierUF) June 28, 2016
https://twitter.com/CFD22/status/747059565540212736
Coach @patsummitt was an all time great w/ a brilliant mind, a love of basketball and a deep loyalty to all around her. She will be missed.
— Billie Jean King (@BillieJeanKing) June 28, 2016
Truly irreplaceable! Our prayers are with you, your family, players, and friends. #PrayForPat pic.twitter.com/B90Se2sRKR
— C. Vivian Stringer (@cvivianstringer) June 27, 2016
