Pat Summitt (June 14, 1952 – June 28, 2016) was an iconic American women’s college basketball coach, notably leading the University of Tennessee Lady Vols from 1974 to 2012. Boasting 1,098 career wins, the most in college basketball history at her retirement, Summitt achieved eight NCAA Division I championships and an impeccable record, never missing the NCAA Tournament in her 38-year coaching tenure. A former Olympic silver medalist, she later coached the U.S. women’s basketball team to a gold medal in 1984. Diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease, Summitt retired at 59 but left an enduring legacy. Inducted into multiple Halls of Fame, including the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame and FIBA Hall of Fame, she received numerous accolades, such as the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Arthur Ashe Courage Award, highlighting her profound impact on the sport and beyond.
Pat Summitt Quotes
1. “Responsibility equals accountability equals ownership. And a sense of ownership is the most powerful weapon a team or organization can have.”
— Pat Summitt
2. “Accountability is essential to personal growth, as well as team growth. How can you improve if you’re never wrong? If you don’t admit a mistake and take responsibility for it, you’re bound to make the same one again.”
— Pat Summitt
3. “It is what it is. But, it will be what you make it.”
— Pat Summitt
4. “Here’s how I’m going to beat you. I’m going to outwork you. That’s it. That’s all there is to it.”
— Pat Summitt
5. “Attitude is a choice. Think positive thoughts daily. Believe in yourself.”
— Pat Summitt
6. “Teamwork is what makes common people capable of uncommon results.”
— Pat Summitt
7. “It’s harder to stay on top than it is to make the climb, Continue to seek new goals.”
— Pat Summitt
8. “Sometimes you learn more from losing than winning. Losing forces you to reexamine.”
— Pat Summitt
9. “Winners are not born, they are self-made.”
— Pat Summitt
10. “Sit up straight, listen and participate.”
— Pat Summitt
11. “You can’t always be the most talented person in the room. But you can be the most competitive.”
— Pat Summitt
12. “Offense sells tickets, defense wins games, rebounding wins championships.”
— Pat Summitt
13. “Change equals self improvement. Push yourself to places you haven’t been before.”
— Pat Summitt
14. “Discipline yourself, so no one else has to.”
— Pat Summitt
15. “In the absence of feedback, people will fill in the blanks with a negative. They will assume you don’t care about them or don’t like them.”
— Pat Summitt
16. “Teamwork is really a form of trust. It’s what happens when you surrender the mistaken idea that you can go it alone and realize that you won’t achieve your individual goals without the support of your colleagues.”
— Pat Summitt
17. “Success is a project that’s always under construction.”
— Pat Summitt
18. “Hard work breeds self-respect.”
— Pat Summitt
19. “Discipline helps you finish a job, and finishing is what separates excellent work from average work.”
— Pat Summitt
20. “To me, teamwork is a lot like being part of a family. It comes with obligations, entanglements, headaches, and quarrels. But the rewards are worth the cost.”
— Pat Summitt
21. “Attitude is a choice. What you think you can do, whether positive or negative, confident or scared, will most likely happen.”
— Pat Summitt
22. “See yourself as self employed.”
— Pat Summitt
23. “Admit to and make yourself accountable for mistakes. How can you improve if you’re never wrong?”
— Pat Summitt
24. “If I’m not leading by example, then I’m not doing the right thing. And I want to always do the right thing.”
— Pat Summitt
25. “In order to grow, you must accept new responsibilities, no matter how uncertain you may feel or how unprepared you are to deal with them.”
— Pat Summitt
26. “Know your strengths, weaknesses, and needs.”
— Pat Summitt
27. “Individual success is a myth. No one succeeds all by herself.”
— Pat Summitt
28. “The greatest strength any human being an have is to recognize his or her own weaknesses. When you identify your weaknesses, you can begin to remedy them – or at least figure out how to work around them.”
— Pat Summitt
29. “The absolute heart of loyalty is to value those people who tell you the truth, not just those people who tell you what you want to hear. In fact, you should value them most. Because they have paid you the compliment of leveling with you and assuming you can handle it.”
— Pat Summitt
30. “My parents taught me a long time ago that you win in life with people, and that’s important, because if you hang with winners, you stand a great chance of being a winner.”
— Pat Summitt
31. “Silence is a form of communication, too. Sometimes less is more.”
— Pat Summitt
32. “Make Winning an Attitude.”
— Pat Summitt
33. “Discipline is the only sure way I know to convince people to believe in themselves.”
— Pat Summitt
34. “The ultimate goal of discipline is to teach self discipline.”
— Pat Summitt
35. “The willingness to experiment with change may be the most essential ingredient to success at anything.”
— Pat Summitt
36. “Anyone can quit, but it takes a strong, committed person not to quit when times are tough.”
— Pat Summitt
37. “There is always someone better than you. Whatever it is that you do for a living, chances are, you will run into a situation in which you are not as talented as the person next to you. That’s when being a competitor can make a difference in your fortunes.”
— Pat Summitt
38. “The best way to handle responsibility is to break it down into smaller parts. Take care of one small thing at a time.”
— Pat Summitt
39. “When you choose to be a competitor you choose to be a survivor. When you choose to compete, you make the conscious decision to find out what your real limits are, not just what you think they are.”
— Pat Summitt
40. “Group discipline produces a unified effort toward a common goal.”
— Pat Summitt
41. “Belief in yourself is what happens when you know you’ve done the thing things that entitle you to success.”
— Pat Summitt
42. “By doing things when you are too tired, by pushing yourself farther than you thought you could – like running the track after a two-hour practice – you become a competitor. Each time you go beyond your perceived limit, you become mentally stronger.”
— Pat Summitt
43. “No one feels strong when she examines her own weakness. But in facing weakness, you learn how much there is in you, and you find real strength.”
— Pat Summitt
44. “Teamwork doesn’t come naturally. It must be taught.”
— Pat Summitt
45. “If you don’t want responsibility, don’t sit in the big chair. To be successful, you must accept full responsibility.”
— Pat Summitt
