Summitt keynote for spring commencement

Pat Head Summitt, the all-time winningest coach in NCAA basketball history and a UTM alumna, will deliver the spring commencement address at UTM.

Commencement will be at 11 a.m. May 14, in the Kathleen and Tom Elam Center on the UTM campus.

Dr. John D. Petersen, president of the University of Tennessee, will attend the ceremony to congratulate the 535 spring graduates.

UTM Chancellor Nick Dunagan will preside over the exercises and confer degrees. Dr. Kay Durden, University of Tennessee National Alumni Association Alumni Distinguished Service Professor, will be the mace bearer, and the processional marshals will be Dr. Daniel Pigg, faculty senate president; Dr. Robert LeMaster, faculty senate vice president; Al Hooten, vice chancellor for finance and administration, and Lenora Solomons, vice chancellor for university advancement.

Closing the ceremony will be spring graduate, Lauren Brannon, UT Board of Trustees student member, singing the alma mater.

Immediately following commencement ceremonies, a reception will be hosted in the Duncan Ballroom in the Ed and Carolyn Boling University Center.

Summitt, with 1,054 collegiate basketball games and 882 wins in more than three decades of coaching, graduated from UTM in 1974.

During her 31-year career at UT, she has coached her teams to six NCAA titles, 24 Southeastern Conference tournament and regular-season championships, had 12 Olympians, 18 Kodak All-Americans named to 30 teams and 62 All-SEC performers.

She was inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in the 1999 inaugural class. In 2000, she was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame, the first time she was eligible for balloting, in a class that included Isiah Thomas, Bob McAdoo and C.M. Newton. Additionally, Summitt was named the Naismith Coach of the Century in 2000 and has amassed numerous other honors and recognitions.

Summitt enrolled to play basketball and volleyball in 1970, becoming the prototypical player of the future. In 1973, she made her first U.S. national team when she represented the United States on the World University Games team (silver medal). She was co-captain of the 1976 U.S. Olympic team (silver medal) and held spots on the U.S. Women’s World Championship team and the 1975 Pan American Games team (gold medal).

Off the court, Summitt has served as a color commentator for television, an author, and has been involved in and a spokesman for a number of organizations, including United Way, The Race for the Cure for Juvenile Diabetes, Big Brothers/Big Sisters, Tennessee Easter Seal Society, American Heart Association and the Lupus Foundation.

A native of Henrietta, Tenn., she and her husband, R.B. Summitt, have a 14-year-old son, Tyler.