Political Quotes

“I am so glad to join the senior Senator from our State, who set such an example in the Senate in recognizing and honoring Pat Summitt. Basketball has lost a legend, and Tennessee has lost one of its own beloved daughters. There is perhaps no one who left with a more indelible mark on his or her profession than Pat. In her 38 years as head coach of the University of Tennessee Lady Volunteers, she amassed a historic record of achievement and blazed a trail for women across our country. A farm girl from Henrietta, TN, Pat attended the University of Tennessee at Martin, earning a bachelor's degree and leading the women's basketball team to two national championship tournaments. Shortly after graduating, she accepted a position at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville as head coach of the women's basketball team at 22 years old. The rest, they say, is history. In those early years, Pat washed the jerseys, drove the team van, and was paid $250 a month. Thirty-eight years later, she walked off the hardwood as the winningest NCAA Division I basketball coach in history, with 1,098 victories, 8 national championships, 32 combined Southeastern Conference titles, and zero losing seasons. If you asked Pat, there was only one number that she would point to: 161--161 Lady Vols who had the honor of wearing the orange and white over the span of her career. As she once wrote, ``I won 1,098 games, and eight national championships, and coached in four different decades.…”