Humility and hard work are the keys to success, the head coach for women’s basketball at the University of Tennessee said Thursday. Pat Summitt was the keynote speaker at the 17th annual YWCA Women of Distinction Awards dinner Thursday at Illinois State University’s Brown Ballroom in Bone Student Center.
The awards are part of a national initiative recognizing personal and professional achievements of women.
Summitt, the first female coach ever to be on the cover of Sports Illustrated magazine, has racked up a 913-177 record in more than 30 seasons.
“I wasn’t as talented as some others, but my engine was going full speed,” she told the audience of more than 600 people. “Hard work is something you can control any day of your life.”
She grew up on a dairy farm as one of five children. Her mother dropped out of school in ninth grade, but she taught Summitt life skills.
Summitt said her father didn’t talk much and had a hard time showing emotions. When she’d say, “Dad, I love you,” he’d reply, “Good.”
But she won his praise when she coached a team to a NCAA championship in 1996.
“He goes ‘Somebody knows how to coach.’ He gave me a big old hug and kiss,” she said.
“Dad told me to be humble. If you’re good enough, others will talk about your accomplishments,” she said.
The advice on being humble came in handy one time when a stranger came up to her and asked, “Don’t I know you? Don’t you work at Ace Hardware?”
She passed on the lesson about hard work to her own son.
When her son was 9 years old, she found him crying with two basketballs under his arms. He sobbed, “I got cut.”
She said she told him he didn’t work hard enough to make the team. She advised him to take those two basketballs and wear them out before the next season.
He asked her to help him. She said she would, but she told him he had to start his own engine.
A positive attitude is everything, she said.
“You only go around life one time,” she said. “Enjoy all the success and share it with all the people you possibly can share it with.”
“Laugh at yourself in your journey through life.”
Women’s sports have come a long way since she played college basketball in the 1970s, she said. Back then, the budget was so tight, players bought their own uniforms and had to attach the numbers themselves.
Now women in sports are role models, and she takes that seriously, she said.
Once a player told her she didn’t want to be a role model. The coach said she had no choice.
“You are a role model,” she told the player. “You decide what kind of role model you are going to be.”
People need to think about how they want to be remembered when they leave this earth, she said.
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