Skip to main content

A Witness To History

Submitted by Jim Wogan on January 23, 2006 - 1:12am

I was in Nashville Wednesday night to witness history.

Pat Summitt's 900th career win reminded me of a similar victory at Vanderbilt nearly eight years ago.

On Wednesday, the Lady Vols were down by fourteen points, but mounted a furious comeback to beat the Lady Commodores at Memorial Gym. With it, Summitt continues to set even higher standards.

And please, don't give me that mumbo-jumbo that Summit's 900 wins don't deserve to be mentioned with the game's great male coaches.

I'm guessing Krzyzewski and Smith and Rupp never had to drive the team bus on the way home from one of their early road wins.
I'm guessing Boeheim and Olson and Calhoun never had to worry about recruiting budgets. Or for that matter, a much smaller talent pool.

Summitt has worked as hard-- if not harder-- for each of her 900 wins. None of that work should be diminished. Not even when cast against the records of other great, legendary coaches.

Finally, about that memorable win at Memorial Gym 8 years ago. Down by 16 points to North Carolina with 7 minutes to play in the NCAA region final-- the Lady Vols mounted a furious comeback and pulled-off a shocking win! They remained undefeated, and went on to win--- Summitt's 6th national title.