Legendary college basketball coach Pat Summitt is dead at 64

(Image credit: Doug Benc/Getty Images)

published 28 June 2016

Former Tennessee women's basketball coach Pat Summitt, who led the Lady Vols to eight national championships and amassed the winningest record in Division I college basketball, died Tuesday. She was 64. Summitt retired in 2012, after 38 years at Tennessee, after being diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. She ended her coaching career with an unprecedented 1,098-208 record, and in her 38 seasons, she never had a losing record; her Lady Vols made every NCAA Tournament and played in 18 Final Four matches.

Her son, Tyler Summitt, said Tuesday morning that his mother had died peacefully at a retirement home in Knoxville. "Since 2011, my mother has battled her toughest opponent, early onset dementia, 'Alzheimer's Type,'" he wrote, "and we can all find peace in knowing she no longer carries the heavy burden of this disease."

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.