Patricia Sue Head was born as on the 14th June 1952 in Clarksville, Tennessee, USA, and as Pat Summitt was a women’s basketball coach, probably best recognized for being the head coach of the Tennessee Lady Vols basketball team. She was also known for being the coach with the all-time winning record in NCAA basketball history. Her coaching career was active from 1974 to 2012. She passed away in 2016.
So, have you ever wondered how rich Pat Summitt was? According to authoritative sources, it was estimated that the total size of Pat’s net worth was over $8 million, accumulated through her successful involvement in the sports industry as a basketball coach. Other sources came from the sales of her two books – “Reach For The Summitt” and “Sum It Up”.
Pat Summitt Net Worth $8 Million
Pat Summitt was raised on the family tobacco farm with four siblings by her parents, Richard and Hazel Albright Head. While she attended high school, Pat began to play basketball, so her family moved to nearby Henrietta, where she could play in Cheatham County in a girls’ team. Upon matriculation, she enrolled at the University of Tennessee at Martin, where she became a member of Chi Omega Sorority. There, she continued to play basketball for the college team under Nadine Gearin, the college’s first woman basketball coach, and thanks to her skills, she won All-American honors. At that time, there are no athletic scholarships for women, so her parents paid her college education. She graduated with a BA degree in Physical Education in 1976.
Pat began her professional coaching career in 1974, when she began to work as a graduate assistant at the University of Tennessee. In no time, when the previous coach quit, she replaced her and became the head coach of the team, her debut game in December 1974 was against Mercer University in Macon, Georgia, when they lost. However, her first victory came quickly, when they defeated Middle Tennessee State in January of 1975. Moreover, they won for the third straight year the Tennessee College Women’s Sports Federation (TCWSF) Eastern District Championship, but as they finished on the 4th place in the TCWSF, were not invited to participate at the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) tournament. Nevertheless, in the next season, she was named the co-captain of the US women’s national basketball team at the Summer Olympics in 1976, when they won the silver medal, and she led the team to finish in third place at AIAW Final Tour, which added a considerable amount to her net worth.
During the 1980s, Pat continued to line up success, leading the Lady Vols to win several SEC titles, and to compete at the first ever NCAA Women’s basketball tournament, finishing in second place. In 1982, Pat won her 200th game with the team, when they defeated St. John’s. In the 1986-1987 season, the team won their first national title, which increased Pat’s net worth by a large margin, and during the next season, they won every NCAA tournament.
In the next decade, Pat had her 500th win, and the Lady Vols won the SEC tournament again. In the 1996-1997 season, they didn’t have any major success, but everything changed when they won the NCAA Tournament, and the next season was one of Pat’s best, as they defeated Louisiana Tech for their third straight national championship, 93–75 points. In the following season, three players were named Kodak All-Americans, and furthermore, the team finished this decade with a third straight 30-win season, three SEC titles and three SEC Tournament titles, with Pat earning her 700th victory with the team, which contributed a lot to her wealth. In 2000, the Lady Vols was named co-team of the decade at the ESPY awards, and Pat was named the Naismith Coach of the Century.
To speak further about her career, at the beginning of the 2000s, Pat led the team to win all 14 SEC games and claimed one more SEC title, soon earning her 880th win, with which she broke Dean Smith’s record of 879 victories,making her the coach with the all-time winning record in NCAA basketball history. In the 2007-2008 season, she led the team to defeat the Georgia Lady Bulldogs, which was her 1,000th win, contributing more to her net worth. Pat finished her coaching career with 1,098 wins in 1,306 games.
Thanks to her accomplishments, Pat was inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in 1999, and a year later into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Beside that, she also received a number of prestigious awards and recognitions, including being named the 11th Greatest Coach of All-Time, the 2009 WNBA Inspiring Coach Award, and the 2011 Sportswoman of the Year, among others.
Speaking about her personal life, Pat Summitt was married to Ross Barnes Summitt II from 1980 to 2007; the couple had a son together, Ross Tyler Summitt, who is also known as a women’s basketball head coach. She passed away at the age of 64, on the 28th June 2016 in Knoxville, Tennessee, USA, from complications with the onset of Alzheimer’s desease..
