Name the most dominant sports team, college or professional, over the past thirty years and the answer may surprise. It’s not the Yankees or Cowboys. It’s not Duke or Ohio State. Nope, it’s not the New England Patriots or Chicago Bulls either. Give up?
It’s the Pat Summitt led Tennessee Lady Volunteers basketball program.
When Pat Summitt took over as head coach of the Lady Vols in 1974, women’s college basketball was an afterthought. In fact, women’s college athletic programs weren’t governed by the NCAA but rather the AIAW (Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women). It wasn’t until 1982 that the NCAA began to oversee all women’s college athletic programs.
The Lady Vols finished 16-8 during Summitt’s first season; just two years later they would appear in their first of many final fours, finishing the season by winning the consolation game. The 1977-78 season also began a streak of 32 consecutive years in which the Lady Vols have won at least 20 games.
In 1980, Tennessee captured the first of their 14 regular season SEC championships. During the 1980-81 season, the Lady Vols went 25-6, and made it to the AIAW Final Four for the third straight year, but finished runner-up for the second consecutive year, losing to Louisiana Tech, 79-59.
Pat Summitt wasn’t just building a basketball powerhouse at Tennessee; she was helping to build women’s college basketball into what it has become today. During the 1983-84 season, Summitt would earn her first SEC Coach of the Year award, and her first NCAA Coach of the Year award.
By 1986, the Lady Vols had appeared in eight final fours but had yet to take home the title. However, after years of trying, the Lady Vols finally broke through and defeated Louisiana Tech for their NCAA Championship, 67-44. During the season, Summitt earned her 300th win, an 87-66 victory over North Carolina.
The Lady Vols won another NCAA Championship in 1989, and would begin the decade of the 90’s with another NCAA title in 1991. During the 1993-94 season, Summitt earned her 500th coaching victory. The next season would see the Lady Vols going undefeated in SEC play for the third consecutive season.
The 1995-96 season began what was to become three straight seasons of winning the women’s NCAA basketball championship. During that span, Tennessee compiled a record of 100-14, including an undefeated 39-0 during the 1997-98 season. In 1999, Pat Summitt was inducted into the inaugural class of the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame.
In 2000, Summitt was named the Naismith Coach of the Century and was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame. The following season Summitt would lead the Lady Vols to their 13th final four appearance, breaking former UCLA head coach John Wooden’s record of 12. Summitt would also earn her 788th coaching victory, tying Texas’ Jody Conradt.
During the 2002-03 season Summitt earned her 800th coaching victory and just three years later during the 2005-06 season, Summitt reached the 880-win plateau, surpassing former North Carolina head coach Dean Smith as the winningest coach in college basketball history. During the 2006-07 season Pat Summitt would reach 900 coaching victories while guiding the Lady Vols to their seventh NCAA women’s basketball championship.
The past 30 seasons have seen the Lady Vols make an appearance in every AIWA or NCAA women’s basketball tournament. Tennessee has won 14 regular season SEC titles and 12 SEC tournament championships.
At present, Pat Summitt has compiled a record of 972-182, with seven NCAA national championships, seven SEC Coach of the Year awards and seven NCAA Coach of the Year awards. She is the only person to have two NCAA Division 1 basketball courts named in her honor; “Pat Head Summitt Court” at the University of Tennessee-Martin, and “The Summitt” at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville.
What’s even more impressive is how Pat Summitt has built and maintained the program. Tennessee routinely rests atop the women’s college basketball RPI rankings and schedules the most out-of-conference top 25 ranked opponents of any college basketball team, women’s or men’s.
Tennessee’s women’s basketball program has never been placed on probation for NCAA rules violations. Her teams play hard, with passion and are gracious in victory or defeat. Coach Summitt’s players don’t get arrested because they’re too busy attending class and graduating.
Over the past 32 years the Lady Volunteers have established themselves as the perennial powerhouse in all of sports. No team, college or professional, can claim such continued success over that time. How ironic in this male-dominated world of sports, a women’s basketball team has set the benchmark.
Pat Summitt and the Tennessee Lady Vols are the sterling example of how a program should and can be run. Let’s give it up for coach Summitt and the Lady Volunteers, the most dominant sports program in the land.
