Former Lady Vols Players and Colleagues Remember Pat Summitt

Pat Summitt may not have invented women’s basketball, but she’s the one who made it popular.
Today, her former players and colleagues remember the Lady Vols icon, who died at the age of 64 after fighting Alzheimer’s.
Said former Lady Vols player Kara Lawson-“She’s the most important figure in the history of the sport. I knew if I went to play for Pat that I would reach my potential. I knew that she would get every ounce out of me.”
Said former Georgia women’s coach Andy Landers-“She made people understand what the product of Title IX could be.”
Said former Vols football coach Phil Fulmer-“If you could imagine, someone at the age of 22 taking a job at the University of Tennessee as the women’s basketball coach when it really wasn’t a popular thing to do. And ten years later, she’s leading the Olympic team to the gold medal. That’s how powerful her personality was.”
Said former Vols men’s basketball coach Bruce Pearl-“There just aren’t enough words of praise to place upon her as a teach, as a coach, as a leader, as an example. She’s just going to be missed. And she is just missed.”
Said the Voice of the Vols Bob Kesling-“She was always a simple farm girl from West Tennessee, and that never changed. She treated people with respect.”
Said UTC women’s basketball coach Jim Foster-“The most significant thing to me today is that the most powerful, busiest man in the world, Barack Obama, put out a release that was personal and heartfelt. And he was talking about a women’s basketball coach. You have to go past that? I don’t think so.”