Summitt to receive Lapchick Award

Tennessee women’s basketball coach Pat Summitt has been selected as an inaugural recipient of the Joe Lapchick Character Award.

The award, the idea of former St. John’s player and longtime high school coach Gus Alfieri, was established to recognize basketball coaches who have shown the character and coaching ability of Hall of Famer Joe Lapchick, who coached at St. John’s and with the New York Knicks.

Other recipients being honored at at the Nov. 20 ceremony at Madison Square Garden in New York City will be Hall of Fame coaches Lou Carnesecca of St. John’s and Dean Smith of North Carolina.

“There could not be a better time to focus attention on character in sports but the present and Joe Lapchick is the model for the person we should look to,” said Alfieri, who was on Lapchick’s 1959 NIT Championship team.

Summitt, who enters the 2008-09 season with a 983-182 career record in 34 seasons at Tennessee, is the winningest coach in college Division I basketball history. Every student-athlete Summitt has coached and finished her eligibility at Rocky Top has graduated. She is very involved in the community and continues to be a spokeswoman for the United Way.

“It is an honor to have been selected as the first recipient of the Joe Lapchick Character Award. He was a legendary figure on both the collegiate and professional level of our game,” said Summitt. “I am humbled to accept an award which bears his name.”

Lapchick was enshrined in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 1966 after a successful playing career with the Original Celtics and Cleveland Rosenblums. He won four NIT championships in 20 seasons at St. John’s and led the NBA’s New York Knicks to three NBA Finals.