Summitt's impact enormous off the court

KNOXVILLE — Pat Summitt's name will always be synonymous Tennessee basketball, but it is more than just championship banners hanging from the rafters.

Her legacy is more than 1,098 wins. It's more than eight national titles, 18 Final Four appearances and 32 SEC Titles. She means more than just basketball.

Her impact will resonate because of the way she battled Alzheimer's, the disease that after a nearly five-year battle took trailblazing coach's life Tuesday morning.

And at the end, that is what she wanted to be remember for, not the basketball.

“When she was diagnosed with this disease, she looked me directly in the eye and said, “Joan, I thought I was going to be remembered for winning basketball games, but I hope I am remember for making a difference in this disease,'” said former Tennessee women's athletic director Joan Cronan, who was a colleague with Summit for 33 years.

Summitt was diagnosed with early-onset dementia during the 2011 season but continued to coach. She battled her disease, in private during that time, and led Tennessee to yet another SEC championship and to the Elite 8.

She announced she was stepping down as Tennessee's coach, a post she held for 38 seasons, where she raised Tennessee, and women's basketball, from a sport of relative obscurity to a respected institution, less than a month later.

Behind the scenes, before she had even made a public announcement, Summitt had already put into action the infrastructure of how she would combat the disease and help bring awareness to her new fight, the same way she did for women's basketball and women's athletics.

The Pat Summitt Foundation was created in November 2011 to benefit Alzheimer's research, and shortly after she went public with her condition, the 'We Back Pat' initiative was put into effect.

In a four year period, the Pat Summitt Foundation has raised millions, both through grants — over $800,000 raised — and investing $500,000 every year in research, in the fight against Alzheimer's and has helped bring the cause into the national conscious in a way it wasn't previously.

“She's become the face (of fighting Alzheimer's),” former UT football coach Phillip Fulmer said. “She came out about her disease and made it public, nationally and internationally.”

Summitt was still a presence around the program after she stepped down, but former Lady Vol Andraya Carter said Summitt was always busy with the foundation, trying to help build awareness.

“She was doing a lot in those years,” Carter said. “She was spreading the word, working with the foundation and had a lot of things.

“You could see how much she cared about us but also her cause.”

Her impact will continue to be felt with the work the Foundation continues to do in the Knoxville community and in the world at large.

"It's impossible to measure (her impact) because overtime you'll see her still influencing people," executive director of the Pat Summitt Foundation Patrick Wade told Volquest. "She has helped raise money but even more it's the way she's touched so many lives ... by reaching out, meeting with, speaking with others effected."

Her name will live on in Tennessee and basketball history, on the banners hanging in Thompson-Boling Arena and the trophies in athletic offices. But that fight wasn't her only one, and her final fight continues.

“We've got to take this fight on and Pat's the face of that,” Fulmer said.