The Drubbing

With all of the political and economic turmoil and news in the air, with the sports world flooded with post-Super Bowl talk, mid-season NBA rivalries and Michael Phelps hitting the pipe, a monumental event in American sports history may go nearly unnoticed.

On Thursday, February 5th, 2009, in Nashville, Tennessee, against the University of Georgia, Pat Summitt became the first NCAA Division I basketball coach to record their 1,000th career win. All of which were won as the head coach of Tennessee. For clarity, there is no other coach that has done this, coaching NCAA men or women, ever. There is no chance you’ll ever get me to watch a quarter of a women’s college basketball game, I can still recognize what an amazing feat this is.

Pat Summitt made women's basketball the biggest show in town in Tennessee

Pat can now add this to her 104 NCAA tournament victories, 18 years of 30+ win seasons, eight national championship and her silver and gold olympic medals. But there is one mark that is more impressive and significant than all of the other accomplishments, including her 1,000 wins. Under Pat Summitt, the University of Tennessee women’s basketball program has a 100% graduation rate. Let me repeat that because it bears repeating. 100% graduation rate. That means everyone. That’s something all other college sports and teams, especially men’s basketball and football should aspire too. Pat has proved it’s possible to win and graduate student athletes.

All of these accomplishments together, especially the last one, puts Pat at least in the conversation when it comes to the greatest coaches of all time at any level, in any sport. Because in college basketball, coaching isn’t just about W’s and L’s, X’s and O’s, tournament cash and tournament victories. And Pat has all of them.

Congratulations Pat.