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College sports, Title IX, and the legacy of Pat Summitt

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As University of Tennessee women’s basketball coach Pat Summitt takes her retirement, Sports Illustrated’s Holly Anderson reflects on Summitt’s career, women’s sports, and Title IX.

A funny thing happened toward the end of her career, a phenomenon I think we’ll see more and more of on a long enough timeline, and that 40 years later may represent the greatest legacy of Title IX: Gender has fallen out of the Summitt conversation. She can be referred to, casually, as “the greatest college basketball coach,” with no qualifiers attached. To throw “women’s” in there at this point would be to unfairly shield from her obvious superiority all the men’s coaches whose careers she’s outshone.

One of Summitt’s star players, Candace Parker, was the first woman dunk in an NCAA tournament game. By the time Brittney Griner became the second, in this year’s tournament, seeing her highlights on SportsCenter was a matter of course. Her antics became less “OOH, GIRL DUNK” and more “MONSTER ATHLETE ALERT.” Notice the lack of gender clarification.

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9 thoughts on College sports, Title IX, and the legacy of Pat Summitt

  1. I generally agree with Anderson’s article and the importance of Title IX, but I don’t think it’s fair to say that gender has fallen out of the equation. People still had plenty of nasty stuff to say about Grinerduring the NCAA tournament. There’s still an expectation that female athletes be attractive and feminine.

  2. I bet if we talk about Summitt being a mother this thread would get more comments…

  3. “…it took a law to make them do what’s right…”
    It always does. It’s institutionalized exploitation and only the law has the power to make the (white, male, wealthy) gangbangers relinquish control .
    knoxnews.com had a series of articles last week on Summitt’s career, and keeps well-wishers updated. Use full site, not mobile.
    About that family: it’s been fairly recently that Summitt’s husband divorced her, a disgustingly common occurrence when a wife has health challenges. Let it be said that the bad husband was traded out for the affection of an entire nation.

  4. Putting aside level of interest, women’s college basketball has remarkably less competition than men’s. Comparing Pat Summit’s win totals and championship with coaches in the men’s division is apples and oranges.

  5. Putting aside level of interest, women’s college basketball has remarkably less competition than men’s. Comparing Pat Summit’s win totals and championship with coaches in the men’s division is apples and oranges.

    Not for nothing, but this is the kind of attitude regarding women’s sports that bugs me. Men’s basketball was less competitive when UCLA went on their winning streak. It still stands, and I don’t hear a lot of people disparaging John Wooden and his remarkable career over it.

    Women’s college basketball has struggled for a long time to gain the recognition it deserves, and the accolades for its accomplishments. Pat Summitt is an incredible coach. She is tough, her teams have historically been hard to beat, and she had a record that reflects the talent and passion she has brought to the game. And I say this as a UConn fan, so I know a thing or two about my team playing against – and in years past losing to – the Lady Vols.

    When and if women’s college basketball reached the caliber it needs to for people to stop disparaging it’s level of play, it’s going to be thanks to coaches like Pat Summitt who didn’t accept anything less than excellence from their players, and who demonstrated to little girls that it was possible to play like Tamika Catchings or Kara Lawson.

  6. That “level of interest” is the WNBA doing better ratings than the NHL and NCAA Women’s tournament hanging around high 1s — low 2s (or ~ 2 million viewers, also well better than the NHL).

  7. Putting aside level of interest, women’s college basketball has remarkably less competition than men’s.

    I literally live 3 blocks from Duke University. 13.4 miles from UNC. Roughly 20 miles from NC State.

    The rest of the fuckin’ country has “remarkably” less competition than North Carolina does… but that doesn’t seem to stop folks from supporting men’s collegiate basketball.

    What was your point?

  8. Comparing Pat Summit’s win totals and championship with coaches in the men’s division is apples and oranges.

    Indeed it is. There is yet to be a level playing field between girls and boys sports leading up to the collegiate level (and beyond). Feminists have been saying this for decades now. Welcome to the club.

    What is interesting is that Coach Summitt’s accomplishments push that particular envelope. We can talk about her success and her teams’ successes on a level that starts to bridge the gap between men’s sports and women’s sports.

    The key thing is, we wouldn’t be able to do that without Title IX. Had this legislation not happened, you could be proud and secure in your ignorance about the “competitiveness” of women’s athletics.

    In other words, Pat Summitt’s success punches deep holes in the idea that women’s sports have to be judged on the same basis as men’s sports. Which, considering that men deem it below them to compete with women, was just a shit-tastic standard to begin with.

  9. About that family: it’s been fairly recently that Summitt’s husband divorced her, a disgustingly common occurrence when a wife has health challenges. Let it be said that the bad husband was traded out for the affection of an entire nation.

    I have to speak up for accuracy and fairness here. She was diagnosed in 2011, and they divorced in 2007. Not only that, but she divorced him(irreconcilable differences), not the other way around. There was no reason to trash her ex-husband in this thread.

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