“I’ve always said you win life with people and I have been so blessed to have great people in my life,” Summitt said. “My son Tyler and I appreciate all of your support during this time. That’s the next challenge for me and Tyler. It is time to fight. I ask all of you to join me together so we will win. I can tell you tonight, I am deeply touched as all of you heard my story. I’m going to keep on keeping on, I promise you that.” -Pat Summit ESPYs 2012
You can not speak of the growth in women’s basketball over the past 4 decades without mentioning Pat Summit. I started playing organized basketball in the 8th grade and although we were pretty bad we were all convinced we were going to play basketball at Tennessee for Pat Summit. That dream never came true but I believe I have a connection to her as she coached a few of my favorite female basketball players.
In 2011, Pat Summitt revealed that she was battling an early onset of dementia, a chronic or persistent disorder of the mental processes caused by brain disease or injury and marked by memory disorders, personality. Eight month later, with a career ending record of 1,098-208 record, 16 regular-season Southeastern Conference championships and 16 SEC tournament titles, Coach Summit resigned.
On July 11th at the ESPY Awards, Summit accepted the Arthur Ashe Courage Award. As I watched the heartfelt and well narrated 10 minute highlight tribute from my living room I could not help but think of millions of individuals that now relation to Pat Summit for something other than women’s basketball. Myself, along with many of Fashion For A Cure’s readers, can relate to the experiences associated with Dementia and/or Alzheimer’s Disease. Fashion For a Cure joins Pat in her fight with Dementia and we stand with her and everyone battling this disease!
In case you missed or want to revisit the moments Pat Summit shared on the ESPY:
