[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 113 (Wednesday, July 13, 2016)]
[House]
[Page H4822]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             TRIBUTE TO THE LIFE OF COACH PAT HEAD SUMMITT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Tennessee (Mr. Duncan) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DUNCAN of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, tomorrow night in my hometown 
of Knoxville, Tennessee, the 24,000-seat Thompson-Boling Arena will be 
filled with people to celebrate the life of Coach Pat Head Summitt.
  Coach Summit was buried last week in the little farming community of 
Henrietta, Tennessee, where she grew up. As most people know, she was 
diagnosed with Alzheimer's at the age of 58, 6 years ago. She fought 
this disease with such courage that, about 5 years ago, I had the 
privilege of sitting with Coach Summitt as she received the top award 
presented by the National Alzheimer's Association. This was the Sargent 
and Eunice Shriver Profiles in Dignity Award, and it was presented by 
their well-known daughter, Maria.
  No one could have been more deserving of this award than Coach 
Summitt. She made the decision to both go public with this diagnosis 
and continue coaching her beloved Lady Vols. Later, she decided to give 
up her coaching job after 38 years to help lead the fight against 
Alzheimer's. She and her son, Tyler, have established the Pat Head 
Summitt Foundation to carry on this battle that is and will be so very, 
very important to millions of people.
  Coach Summitt became head coach of the UT Lady Vols at the very young 
age of 22 because nobody was interested in the job. At that time, only 
the players and their parents attended the games. Thanks largely in 
part to Pat Head Summitt, women's basketball gained major support, 
drawing crowds of 20,000 and more.
  She certainly was the most respected woman in Tennessee and my most 
famous constituent and longtime friend. I was honored on two occasions 
to be her honorary assistant coach. The first time was on her 25th 
anniversary as a coach, and the second time was several years later in 
a game against Vanderbilt on the last home game of the season. Before 
that game, we were given a scouting report. Tennessee had beaten 
Vanderbilt in Nashville by 30 points. So it is accurate to say that the 
team was fairly confident about this game.

                              {time}  1045

  However, at halftime, the game was almost tied, and the Lady Vols 
came into the locker room with their heads hanging down. That is when I 
saw Coach Summitt go into action. She got into each young woman's face 
like a baseball manager arguing with an umpire.
  She started with Lady Vol Teresa Geter and told her in a drill 
sergeant's voice that she was going through a pity party out there, and 
Coach Summitt was having no part of it and was giving her 2 minutes to 
make her presence known on that court or she was going to yank her out 
of there so fast it would make her head spin.
  When we went back out for the second half, the first thing that 
happened was that Teresa Geter stole the ball, and she took it down 
court for a lay-up and her first 2 points of the game. The Lady Vols 
went on a 20-0 run, and Vanderbilt called a timeout.
  A spectator in the stands, whom I had not seen because there were 
20,000 people there, sent his card down to me, and on the back he had 
written: ``Jimmy, great halftime coaching, come again.''
  But it was not me; it was Coach Summitt. In fact, when she was 
staring each one of her players in the face at halftime in an intensely 
angry, very loud voice, I was just glad I was not one of those players.
  Coach Summitt was the winningest coach in basketball history, with 
1,098 victories. Her teams won 16 Southeastern Conference championships 
and eight national championships. She coached in 18 Final Fours. She 
had an 84 percentage winning record as a head coach.
  But to me, her most impressive statistic was a 100-percent graduation 
rate by her players. And she did not allow her players to take easy 
courses because she wanted them to be prepared for life after 
basketball, and almost all of her players have been successful after 
leaving the University of Tennessee.
  On top of this, she never had a question raised about her recruiting 
or any NCAA violation. She showed through the years that you do not 
have to cheat in sports to win and be very successful.
  She succeeded at her most important job, being a mother and raising 
her son, Tyler.
  Coach Summitt was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame 
and was NCAA Coach of the Year an unprecedented seven times. In 2000, 
she was named Naismith Coach of the Year.
  Pat Head Summitt was a woman of great honor and integrity. She was a 
great, great success because of her very hard work, dedication, 
determination, and discipline. Most of her success she credited to her 
hardworking parents and lessons she learned on her family's Tennessee 
farm.
  Mr. Speaker, this Nation is a better place today because of Coach Pat 
Head Summitt and her work with young people and the inspiring example 
that she set for all of us.

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