Tennessee coach Pat Summitt's storied coaching career, in photos
Tennessee women's basketball coach Pat Summitt was a legend in her own time.
Summitt is the winningest coach -- man or woman -- in all of Division I college basketball. She coached the Lady Volunteers for 38 years before retiring in 2012, winning six championships in a span of 12 years and eight overall. But she preached more to her players than just winning, each of her four-year players graduated with a degree.
Summitt has long been heralded as an icon in women's basketball. So much so that when she was asked if she wanted to coach the University of Tennessee's men's basketball team, she famously declined, asking, "why is that considered a step up?" according to the The New York Times.
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She died Tuesday at 64 years old, five years after she announced she had been diagnosed with early onset dementia. Her death drew tributes from some of the biggest names in basketball, as well as President Barack Obama.
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"Pat started playing college hoops before Title IX and started coaching before the NCAA recognized women’s basketball as a sport," Obama said in a statement. "When she took the helm at Tennessee as a 22-year-old, she had to wash her players’ uniforms; by the time Pat stepped down as the Lady Vols’ head coach, her teams wore eight championship rings and had cut down nets in sold-out stadiums."
See some of the most iconic moments from her long, decorated career below.
Liz Pierson was an Assistant Photo Editor at Mashable. She was responsible for photo editing, curating photo stories and taking photos to accompany Mashable stories. Liz received her undergraduate and graduate degrees from the Missouri School of Journalism. She loves watercolor painting, Taylor Swift and being in Times Square.
