The Path to Victory of Pat Summitt
Brittany Quay
PXS 308 001
15 November 2012

In almost every aspect of the world there is some sort of gender inequality. In most sports the men have many more resources available to them compared to the women. There have been many great coaches and athletes who have overcome the obstacles that the fewer resources have brought on. These athletes or coaches have been successful regardless of the situation. One of these coaches is Patricia Head Summitt. Despite the gender inequalities that are evident in the sport of basketball she has become the greatest coach in the sport.
Pat Summitt was born to Richard and Hazel Head on June 14, 1952. She was born in Ashland City, Tennessee. She married R.B. Summitt who she later divorced and together they had one son named Tyler. Pat attended the University of Tennessee at Martin. She majored in physical education and was a member on the women’s basketball team there. Along with playing for her school she was a member of the United States World University team. Summitt graduated in 1974. Immediately after graduating she was offered the job of head women’s basketball coach at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. She accepted the job offer and worked in this position from 1974 until 2012.
As a child Pat grew up in Clarksville, Tennessee but later moved across the county line to Henrietta, Tennessee so that Pat would be able to participate on a women’s high school team. She played for Cheatham County High School where she was a four year starter and earned all-district honors her senior year. When Summitt graduated and decided to attend the University of Tennessee at Martin she had to find a way to afford tuition because at that time there were no basketball scholarships for women. According to Siroky (2012), “Pat and her teammates recall applying their numbers to their jerseys with athletic tape and sleeping on the hosting team’s gym floor when they traveled”. Her team never competed for a NCAA championship title because the women’s game was not governed by the NCAA but by the Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW). During Pat Summitt’s college career she led her team to a 64-29 record in her four years, was the school’s all-time leading scorer, and held the single-season scoring record which she held for 27 years. These honors eventually led to the retirement of her college uniform which still hangs in the gym at the University of Tennessee at Martin. Despite the huge difference in men’s and women’s college athletics at the time Pat was offered the head coaching position at the University of Tennessee immediately after her graduation. Pat Summit accepted the offer and began her career while studying to receive her master’s in Physical Education from the University of Tennessee. She was only a couple years older than her players and received a starting salary of 250 dollars a month. Her first season Pat’s team finished with a winning record of 16-8.
Pat Summitt is obviously not the typical coach. When she first started out she was required to do many duties that men’s coaches did not have to do. Some of these duties included driving the team van to away games and washing their uniforms at her house. Pat Summitt was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012 (Obama, 2012). She has accomplished many more things than what the basketball statistics show. Along with her eight national championships and over 1,000 wins, every student-athlete that has played for Pat Summitt has gone on to graduate. This is a huge accomplishment and shows how great of a mentor Pat was. She led her players to success not only on the court but in life. Summitt was forced to overcome many obstacles in her career to develop a women’s program that most men’s coaches have never had to deal with. There is a higher number of male coaches than females in sports. In 2006, only 42% of women’s teams were coached by women. There are many reasons for the fewer number of female coaches. There are external and internal barriers that keep some women away from the coaching career. A few external barriers according to Kilty (2006) are “Unequal Assumption of Competence”, “Hiring from a Principle of Similarity”, and “Lack of Female Mentors”. When people think of sports they automatically think “guys are better than girls”. This inhibits some women to be hired as a head coach because they are automatically seen has less capable than a male counterpart. Pat Summitt proved to the hiring committee at the University of Tennessee that she was more than qualified for the job by her own performance in her college career. She showed that she had a high basketball I.Q. and could lead others to be as successful as she was as an athlete. Another reason less women are in the coaching career is that people are more likely to hire people that are comparable to themselves or the person that held the position previously. Many people are afraid of change because if one way has been proven to work than there is no reason to try change. There are a fewer number of female mentors for the sole reason that there are less female coaches for athletes to look up to. There have been studies that show that when women have female coaches they are more likely to want to be coaches because they can see themselves in the head coaching role. However, when they have a male coach they are less likely to be able to vision themselves having the job. Along with these external barriers there are also a few internal barriers. According to Kilty (2006), “perfectionism”, “lack of assertiveness”, and “high stress balancing work and personal life” are some internal barriers that discourage coaching as a career for women. Many women want to be liked by everyone. They feel vulnerable when they upset someone so instead of being bold and fighting for something controversial they stay undecided in order to keep everyone satisfied with them. Pat had to fight for her athletes to receive resources that the men’s team was already receiving. She had to prove that the girl’s deserved it just as much as the guys. Without Summitt standing up for equality her team might still be wearing makeshift uniforms and sleeping on the gym floor during road trips. After college graduation women are at prime child bearing age. This could discourage them from becoming coaches because of the huge time commitment that comes along with the job. Some people would not want to give up the time with their family. All of these are internal reasons that there are fewer women in the coaching career. Pat Summitt put all of these to the side and pursued her dream. Her success have earned more respect for all of women basketball. Summitt devoted her time to being a mentor to her athletes. She provided them with the life and basketball skills to be successful on and off the court. She was motivated and driven to make every team that she coached the best. Pat fought for their equality and now some argue that the Tennessee women’s basketball team is treated better than the men’s. This is because of the respect that they have earned through the coaching of Pat. Pat started as the head coach when women’s sports were not even a recognized sport to the NCAA. Along with other coaches like her, women’s sports are now organized by the NCAA, and nationally televised. Despite the gender inequalities, Pat Summitt found a way to become the most successful basketball coach of all time in both the men’s and women’s game. She has made a profound and lasting impact on the sport and has earned herself and women’s basketball the respect of everyone.

Works Cited
Becker, A. J., & Wrisberg, C. A. (2008). Effective Coaching in Action: Observations of Legendary Collegiate Basketball Coach Pat Summitt. Sport Psychologist, 22(2), 197-211.
Deitsch, R. (2000). Tennessee's Pat Summit. Sports Illustrated For Women, 2(1), 62.
Kilty, K. (2006). Women in Coaching. Sport Psychologist, 20(2), 222-234.
Obama, B. (2012). Entitled to a Fair Shot. Newsweek, 160(1/2), 10-11.
Siroky, M. (2012) Pat Summitt - The Early Years: A Young Coach Builds a New Tradition. Full Court. Retreived from http://www.fullcourt.com/mike-siroky/5874/pat-summitt-early-years-young-coach-builds-new-tradition