This is a wonderful story Tenac....what one woman has done who is dedicated to excellence and to uplifting her 'charges'.

I wonder, in the beginning of her coaching, was she 'questioned' concerning her demands for high standards and grades? Some of the 'good old boys' surely must have objected,(although perhaps women's B Ball wasn't on their radar as important).

Her 'style' of coaching is reminisent of John Wooden, the great UCLA coach who also

demanded academic excellence from his players...(I'm not really comparing), but far too few coaches ask for anything more that physical prowess from their players.

Good post!

Patricia 'Pat' Head Summit. 59 year old Coach of 38 years for the University of Tennessee Women's Basketball Team.
A "Hot Topic"? --Sure, it is when you learn who she is and what she accomplished with her life along with her recent news & announcement. 

"She" IS "news." News about a phenomenal woman from the United States. [ √ for the "news" part of the USN/P]

The main "root" of "her" personal story involves United States Politics (both old & new.) [ √ for the "political" part of the USN/P]

Her "gender" and the "obstacles" she faced [in relation to her passion for BBall] and the driving force of her desires for that particular sport as it related/es to the female gender, makes Pat's story a good contender for the Gender & Sexism Forum as well. [So a √ for the G&S board too.]

The new challenge she is now facing is a severe "medical" issue that can strike any of us at any time be it our own self or a family member.  A parent, grandparent, spouse, sibling or a 85 year old person's 59 year old child even.
The issue of Alzheimer's Disease can be suited for a number of Bnet Boards like "Caregiver Support" or "Coping" board.
Even the "Family & Parenting" board when we take into account those of us in the "Sandwich Generation" who are caring for Elderly parents who are stricken with this disease yet they are still raising their own [under 18] children, and/or college age children too. And in some cases they're raising their own grandchildren as well.

But to move this thread about the story of such a phenomenal woman like Patricia Head Summit to the "Sports" Board would be a waste of a number of good discussions from the various aspects of Pat Summit's whole Life Story IMHHO.

So says me, plain old MarySara.
[A member of the female gender. A woman who grew up before & after Title IX. Not a lover of BB of either genders. A Feminist woman as well as a politically astute person.  But who also happens to be a woman who is now the caretaker of a 92 year old grandmother who thankfully still has good mental health but who unfortunately has a 94 year old sister who suffers from Old Age Dementia. Which unlike Alzheimer's, the person still retains many of their life's memories, they still know who their family members are (which in a small way can be a comfort to family members) as compared to the latter which wipes everything out and devastates the whole family.]

So from all of the above, anyone can guess that my vote would be to leave the thread here.
:)

While her accomplishments are stellar, and ought to be applauded and emulated, she is not alone in her attitude towards student athletics.

A couple of years back, when my daughter began attending the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, my wife and I had occasion to take a guided tour of Memorial Stadium and the UNL athletic facilities.

While the group was queuing up for the tour, we waited in the lobby of the stadium.  There before us was a trophy case containing the four national football championships and off to our right was a room with a sign: "Heisman Trophies"

As I stood there I wondered how the tour would unfold. Would the guide start with the trophies, or finish with them?

When our guide arrived, he introduced himself and bid us to follow him.  We walked right past the national championships, past the Heisman room, and into a hall that seemed to run almost the length of the stadium.  On the wall were paintings, photos, and oil portraits of hundreds of people I didn't recognize.  These, we were told, were Nebraska's Academic All-Americans.  We learned that Nebraska holds the NCAA record for most Academic All-Americans, and that the athletic department enjoys a graduation rate higher than the university as a whole.  They have enjoyed these stats for over forty years. These are points of great pride at Nebraska.  The guide spent almost ten minutes of an hour-long tour explaining what it meant to be a student-athlete at UNL, with the emphasis on "student".

At no time on the tour did he ever mention the national championships or the Heisman trophies.  It was almost as if those trophies were merely incidental by-products of all this work.  Come to think of it, that is exactly the message they wanted to convey.  And what a terrific message it is.