First published 2013
Pat Summitt takes over the Tennessee Vols women's basketball program at just 21 years old. She transforms the team into a powerhouse, accumulating more victories than any NCAA basketball coach in history. Summitt guides her players through an undefeated season and earns induction into the Basketball Hall of Fame. She co-captains the first women's Olympic basketball team and receives recognition as Sports Illustrated's Sportswoman of the Year. Her coaching philosophy emerges from personal experience. A demanding father teaches her toughness, while raising her own child shows her how to temper discipline with compassion. Seventy-four of her former players become coaches themselves. In 2011, doctors deliver shocking news: Summitt has early-onset Alzheimer's disease. The diagnosis threatens everything she has built. She refuses to surrender, leading the Vols to their sixteenth SEC championship in March 2012 despite her condition. Summitt confronts this new opponent with the same determination that made her a champion.
Genres: biography, 20th-century, autobiography, biography-memoir, 21st-century, academia, basketball, american-history
Vibes: emotional, inspirational, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: overcoming-adversity, personal-journey, sports-legacy
Setting: Tennessee
Period: 2011, 2012
390 pages · Hardcover · Crown Archetype
Content warnings: mental-illness