Volador
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It's nearly impossible to comprehend the impact Pat Head Summitt had during her time here with us. And while statistics are one way to measure a champion, there was a completely different matrix used to gauge Pat's greatness.
Quick Story: During the 1977/8 basketball season, Pat Head was attempting to fill seats at Stokely Athletic Center for the Lady Vols games. She looked to the campus for ways of stirring up interest and recruited anyone who could be entertain fans at halftime.
The Lambda Chi Alpha Fraternity had a perennial group of 16 that sang in the annual campus wide "All Sing" event. Pat found out about us and invited us to sing during halftime twice that year. I recall looking around Stokely at the 300-400 fans and thinking "Doesn't Pat know that Stokely belongs to Ernie & Bernie"?
It's easy to sit back now nearly 40 years later and say we knew we were witnessing the birth of a legend, but all we saw was a relentless defense and prolific offense and oh, some insanely intense coach on the sidelines.
Little did anyone know how one woman would go on to change the face of women's sports across the country and the world, let alone in good ol' Knoxville, Tennessee!
Fast forward to a UT football game in 2010 and I had just walked down Peyton Manning Pass and was in front of the stadium when out from a utility door steps Pat right in front of me. A small crowd gathered immediately and all I could think of doing was to hold her hand, get on one knee and profess my love towards this woman of unimaginable stature and acclaim.
I can think of no player on the field or coach on the sidelines that embodied what life is/was all about more than Pat. She stared adversity in the eye and taught a generation of followers to do the same. She never gave up on her players, family and fans we will go on always believing in Pat Head Summitt.
THANK YOU PAT - WE LOVE YOU!
Quick Story: During the 1977/8 basketball season, Pat Head was attempting to fill seats at Stokely Athletic Center for the Lady Vols games. She looked to the campus for ways of stirring up interest and recruited anyone who could be entertain fans at halftime.
The Lambda Chi Alpha Fraternity had a perennial group of 16 that sang in the annual campus wide "All Sing" event. Pat found out about us and invited us to sing during halftime twice that year. I recall looking around Stokely at the 300-400 fans and thinking "Doesn't Pat know that Stokely belongs to Ernie & Bernie"?
It's easy to sit back now nearly 40 years later and say we knew we were witnessing the birth of a legend, but all we saw was a relentless defense and prolific offense and oh, some insanely intense coach on the sidelines.
Little did anyone know how one woman would go on to change the face of women's sports across the country and the world, let alone in good ol' Knoxville, Tennessee!
Fast forward to a UT football game in 2010 and I had just walked down Peyton Manning Pass and was in front of the stadium when out from a utility door steps Pat right in front of me. A small crowd gathered immediately and all I could think of doing was to hold her hand, get on one knee and profess my love towards this woman of unimaginable stature and acclaim.
I can think of no player on the field or coach on the sidelines that embodied what life is/was all about more than Pat. She stared adversity in the eye and taught a generation of followers to do the same. She never gave up on her players, family and fans we will go on always believing in Pat Head Summitt.
THANK YOU PAT - WE LOVE YOU!
