To The Summitt

TigerBlog isn't ready to call Pat Summitt the greatest coach in the history of American sports.

Of course, he's also not ready to say she isn't either.

So who is it?

Vince Lombardi? John Wooden? Phil Jackson? Red Auerbach? Bill Tierney? Herb Brooks?

As TB wrote those names, he started to wonder who the No. 1 manager in baseball history is, and he can't really come up with anyone definitive.

Actually, if you were to list the people generally considered the greatest coaches of all-time, you'd probably have mostly professional football and college basketball coaches. Why is that?

 Pat Summitt announced that she is stepping down as the head coach of women's basketball at Tennessee, stepping down after 38 years and one year after announcing the early onset of Alzheimer's.

Summitt's numbers at Tennessee? A record of 1,098-207 (1-0 against Princeton) with 16 SEC championships, 18 NCAA Final Fours and eight NCAA championships.

From the story on ESPN.com:
Her impact reaches beyond wins and losses. Every Lady Vols player who has completed her eligibility at Tennessee has graduated, and 74 former players, assistants, graduate assistants, team managers and directors of basketball operations are among the coaching ranks at every level of basketball.

Beyond that, the impact she had on her sport is incalculable.

Because of Summitt more than anyone else, the sport of women's basketball has grown from something resembling gym class to something that plays its Final Four in packed arenas and in front of national television audiences.

And that doesn't even take into account the millions of little girls who have played basketball, going through doors opened for them by the pioneers of not-that-long-ago, led by the head pioneer, Pat Summitt.

One of the absolute greatest stories TB ever read was the one Gary Smith wrote about Summitt, back when Summitt was on the cover of Sports Illustrated on March 2, 1998. It is not to be missed.

This past season, the Princeton women's basketball went 24-5, winning a third straight Ivy League title and going to a third straight NCAA tournament. They were led by a coaching staff that set very high, very demanding standards and pushed this team to achieve all it could, to approach each day with a renewed fire to improve over the day before.

The team was filled with players who combined athleticism, skill, grace and tenacity. They played hard and aggressive, but with style.

At some point in their lives, they were encouraged by those around them - parents, coaches, friends - to put everything they had into developing their full potential.

They also looked around and saw what the game they were playing had become. They saw role models - not the least of whom were their Princeton coaches themselves, all of whom were accomplished players - and they saw the doors that could be opened by excelling athletically and academically.

Watching the 2011-12 Princeton women's team play was an eye-opening experience. They tore down any myth that might have remained about how "girls" play basketball, and their games were filled with much of the same excitement that existed for the 1997-98 Princeton men's team, as each possession of the ball gave the fans a hint that something to marvel at was about to happen.

The fans responded. On average, more than 1,000 fans per game showed up to see Princeton play, both at home and the road.

Just so you know, all of that would have been unthinkable without the impact that Pat Summitt had on the sport of women's basketball.

And so yesterday, someone who will forever tower over college athletics resigned.

She did so much for Princeton University, without even trying.