Of all the many lessons I’ve learned covering prep and community sports full time, the most obvious has been the importance of an opportunity to participate.
For an entire generation of young women who play sports across America, much of the thanks for that opportunity goes to Pat Summitt.
When Summitt took over the University of Tennessee women’s basketball program nearly 40 years ago, not only was the women’s game marginalized, it wasn’t even a sanctioned NCAA sport. This year, by contrast, the NCAA women’s basketball championship outdrew the first two days of The Master’s in television ratings.
The coaching legend and original pioneer of women’s athletics retired earlier this week after learning last year she has early onset dementia, Alzheimer’s type.
Just like my grandmother Rose.
I don’t remember much of my paternal grandmother, Rose Suman; she passed not long after my family moved to Washington when I was nine and we had never lived closer than two coasts apart.
It’s likely that by the time she died, she didn’t remember much of me either. But like with Summitt, hearing the way others recall my grandma Rose’s vitality and passion creates new memories entirely.
My father, who is still characterized by his measured tone years after retiring from the Marine Corps, lights up like a kid on Christmas when something reminds him of his mother and offers a chance to include her memory in the conversation. His elder sister, infamous for her flawless deadpanning, sheds the sarcastic tone (if only for a moment) when speaking of Rose, a haunting, reverent look on her face as she recalls that special mother-daughter bond and the fleeting moments that defined it.
It has been a similar story with Summitt, though she has left only the court and not the world away from it.
The sports universe has been bombarded with images of the austere and intimidating coach throughout her career – sporting that I-dare-you stare she made famous in her nearly four decades on Rocky Top. While all of us may not play women’s sports, we all certainly have a daughter, sister, cousin, significant other or female friend who has laid it on the line athletically and been subsequently empowered by it.
And in the same way the words from my dad and aunt bring my grandmother closer to my cousins and I even in death, hearing Summitt’s former players and assistants as well as opposing coaches talk about the lessons and benefits of an opportunity to play the game on its biggest stage, a stage that may still be under construction if not for their coach’s efforts, lifts her memory beyond that of a women’s basketball coach.
Just as important, it gives all of us a chance to thank her for the opportunity.
For the Love of the Game is a reporter column by sports reporter Josh Suman. Email Josh at jsuman@bellevuereporter.com.