Pat Summitt calls it quits at 59 | Syracusefan.com

Pat Summitt calls it quits at 59

I'm not the biggest fan of women's hoops, but when I was in Boston for the NCAA tournament the Saturday before our game, I killed some treadmill time in the hotel gym watching the Tennessee / Kansas women's NCAA game on ESPN. Summit barely got off the bench [an associate head coach did all of the real game coaching]--an her eyes looked really glazed. Sad to see a legend go out like this. Alzheimer's is a terrible affliction.
 
I'm not the biggest fan of women's hoops, but when I was in Boston for the NCAA tournament the Saturday before our game, I killed some treadmill time in the hotel gym watching the Tennessee / Kansas women's NCAA game on ESPN. Summit barely got off the bench [an associate head coach did all of the real game coaching]--an her eyes looked really glazed. Sad to see a legend go out like this. Alzheimer's is a terrible affliction.

I pretty much did the same thing and watched a little of the game against Baylor (when they were eliminated) and she didnt even talk in the huddles during the timeouts and like you said barely got off the bench.

It is a crappy disease and one that I wish they would find a cure for. I have a grandmother going through it and its painful to watch how fast they deteriorate mentally.
 
I pretty much did the same thing and watched a little of the game against Baylor (when they were eliminated) and she didnt even talk in the huddles during the timeouts and like you said barely got off the bench.

It is a crappy disease and one that I wish they would find a cure for. I have a grandmother going through it and its painful to watch how fast they deteriorate mentally.
Agreed - I sat a couple rows behind the UT bench when they visited Auburn in January & thought that if someone had no idea who Pat was he would immediately say "Alzheimer's" after watching her for a minute or so. The speed of this is really shocking to me.
 
It's pretty sad I believe her son is still very young, what a terrible thing to have to go through. She was a great coach, probably the only woman who commanded enough respect that she could have coached a men's team if she wanted.
 
It's pretty sad I believe her son is still very young, what a terrible thing to have to go through. She was a great coach, probably the only woman who commanded enough respect that she could have coached a men's team if she wanted.
Her son is graduating from UT this year and just accepted an assistant coaching job with the Marquette women's team. I've met Tyler and Pat, and I can say he's a great guy who's much more mature than your average 22 year old. It's very sad to see what has happened/is happening to Pat, but she does have am amazing support system in place, and Tyler has done a great job with setting things up in anticipation of him leaving.
 
I pretty much did the same thing and watched a little of the game against Baylor (when they were eliminated) and she didnt even talk in the huddles during the timeouts and like you said barely got off the bench.

It is a crappy disease and one that I wish they would find a cure for. I have a grandmother going through it and its painful to watch how fast they deteriorate mentally.
Agreed. Both of my grandmothers suffered from Alzheimer's before they passed, so it is pretty rampant in my family, and while I'm not religious I'm certainly praying a cure can be found. It's a truy awful disease.

Best of luck to Coach Summitt in her battle against this affliction.
 
i worked with alzheimer patients and their families for years----i good read is the 36hr day. the caregiver is as much the patient as the patient is. tremendous, grief,loss, guilt etc.they need a lot of support, encouragement and need to take care of themselves. my mother had alzheimers, it was horrible when she knew that was losing her grip. when she finally did not know any of us---we used to wear shirts with our names on them until that also was of no use. i would always bring my kids to see her as she loved children. one day i brought them and she said what beautiful children,whose are they?---on the lighter side i was wheeling her in a garden when a cat walked through, i said mom see the cat? you look at the damn cat i've seen it. fortunately the deterioration was has halted--as she contracted pneumonia and passe.many patients get aspiration pneumonia as the ability to chew swallow becomes impaired.
 
i worked with alzheimer patients and their families for years----i good read is the 36hr day. the caregiver is as much the patient as the patient is. tremendous, grief,loss, guilt etc.they need a lot of support, encouragement and need to take care of themselves. my mother had alzheimers, it was horrible when she knew that was losing her grip. when she finally did not know any of us---we used to wear shirts with our names on them until that also was of no use. i would always bring my kids to see her as she loved children. one day i brought them and she said what beautiful children,whose are they?---on the lighter side i was wheeling her in a garden when a cat walked through, i said mom see the cat? you look at the damn cat i've seen it. fortunately the deterioration was has halted--as she contracted pneumonia and passe.many patients get aspiration pneumonia as the ability to chew swallow becomes impaired.
My mom had dementia. She exhibited signs of it that weren't given a name until shortly after she was mugged a block from her home. Three teens knocked her to the ground, beat and kicked her trying to steal her purse. My mom may have only been 5.1 and a three-quarters but she was as strong as hell and determined that they weren't going to get the best of her. A week later she passed out while paying her bills in person. She always paid her bills in person. I got a call from the Syracuse PD, they said she refused treatment and they wanted my permission to make a temporary arrest. They took her to a hospital where I met her. A doctor told me the news and gave me several options. She lasted five years, in the end she couldn't remember my name but her smile lit up the room when she spotted me. She came from a very large family and she would sometimes go through three or four names before she got to mine. In the end her kidney's failed. One of the biggest fears I had was that someday she would not react to my presence or recognize me. Thank goodness that never happened.
 
My mom had dementia. She exhibited signs of it that weren't given a name until shortly after she was mugged a block from her home. Three teens knocked her to the ground, beat and kicked her trying to steal her purse. My mom may have only been 5.1 and a three-quarters but she was as strong as hell and determined that they weren't going to get the best of her. A week later she passed out while paying her bills in person. She always paid her bills in person. I got a call from the Syracuse PD, they said she refused treatment and they wanted my permission to make a temporary arrest. They took her to a hospital where I met her. A doctor told me the news and gave me several options. She lasted five years, in the end she couldn't remember my name but her smile lit up the room when she spotted me. She came from a very large family and she would sometimes go through three or four names before she got to mine. In the end her kidney's failed. One of the biggest fears I had was that someday she would not react to my presence or recognize me. Thank goodness that never happened.

I'm sorry for what happened to you and your family, but it soundslike she was an incredible person that brought a lot of happiness to your life.
 
I'm really surprised she's only 59 - i would've guessed she was much older
 
very impressive a women's coach from the south can get a nice tribute on a powerhouse mens forum 800 miles away. The disease is awful, but her legacy is very impressive.

Cheers Pat! Continue the fight and remain proud.
 
I'm not sure if I can extrapolate but it seems that early onset Altz. can be fatal in short order. Took about 3 years to kill someone I knew.
 

Forum statistics

Threads
167,128
Messages
4,681,627
Members
5,900
Latest member
DizzyNY

Online statistics

Members online
225
Guests online
2,031
Total visitors
2,256


Top Bottom