The World Lost Two Iconic Coaches
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By Roger Grossman, Lake City Radio-
We lost two icons, two legendary figures in their respective sports in a span of a couple of hours.
In real time, we were about an hour into dealing with the death of former University of Tennessee women’s basketball coach Pat Summit when we got word that former football coach Buddy Ryan had also passed away.
Both gone, but a very different feeling evoked in their passing.
Summit was just a kid, 22 years old and barely out of college herself, when she was handed the reins of the fledgling women’s team at Tennessee. The NCAA didn’t even acknowledge women’s basketball as an official sport yet, and there she was … in charge.
Summit decided that if she was going to be the coach and they were going to have a team, then they might as well do it right. She went on to win 1,098 games and eight national titles in 38 years.
Her contribution, however, goes way beyond that.
She hacked her way through the thorn bushes of sexism, small budgets, and the unknown of what women could do playing sports to lead millions of female athletes to where women’s sports are today – growing, stand-alone entities that have taken their rightful place in our society.
She did it by realizing there was only one person she could count on to start with – herself. She did the laundry, she made the travel arrangements – she did it.
Long before there was such a thing as Title IX, there was Pat Summit, daring anyone to tell her and her Lady Vols that they were “just women’s basketball.” She took that as a cuss word and she proved to one and all that, with hard work, skill and teamwork, women’s sports were a viable product that we would watch and be interested in. And we have been.
When you consider her impact on Americana, understand this: Pat Summit is responsible for the existence of the WNBA, the ESPN TV contract for the NCAA women’s basketball tournament, and the current popularity of high school girls sports (specifically basketball). If your daughter or granddaughter is playing or played sports at some level, you can credit Pat Summit for that.
And maybe most importantly, she proved to the world that you can be tough and competitive and intense, and still be a woman – an attractive woman at that. She broke the stereotype that you had to ‘act like a man’ to be an athlete. She proved that women didn’t have to hand in their ‘feminine card’ to play sports. She led the revolution that brought us to a place where athletic women were desirable.
And we should all thank her for that.
What made her death Tuesday after a five-year battle with early-onset dementia so ironic is that she also made women realize that their best asset could be their brain. Summit was a smart basketball coach. On the court and off she knew how to make adjustments and how to get the most out of people. In the end, the same mind that made her great betrayed her.
Think about it … she redefined the possibilities for half of the population of the world.
I don’t know what her gravestone will read, but it should say “Pat Summit, she taught us what a woman could be.”
For Buddy Ryan, half the world would rather spit on his gravestone than leave flowers.
Ryan, who was better known for his days as an assistant coach in the NFL than a head coach, also died Tuesday. He was 82.
Like Summit, he was well known for his harsh style and persona. He was a yeller and a screamer and, unlike Summit, the filter between his brain and his mouth had a lot of holes in it.
Like Summit, he was often caught on camera red-faced.
But like Summit, the people who knew him best – his former players and assistant coaches – loved him until his dying breath, and will love him until their own.
Ryan was a head coach of the Eagles and Cardinals, but he will always be best known as the ring leader of the best defense to ever take the field in the history of professional football.
Ryan changed football by implementing a scheme called the “46 Defense” as a defensive coordinator for the Bears. Its basic concept was this: “if the quarterback is running for his life or flat on his back, he can’t hurt us.” So Ryan crowded the line of scrimmage with fast, punishing linebackers. It was a numbers game. The Bears sent more defensive players than the offense could block.
Advantage defense.
The Bears of 1985 set a standard that few have approached since but none have matched. In their championship run at the end of that season, they pitched two home shutouts and then sacked Patriot quarterbacks a Super Bowl record seven times in a 46-10 win in New Orleans.
But Ryan and his boss, Bears head coach Mike Ditka, were too much alike to work out for long, so they parted ways. Ryan often said he didn’t have a bad relationship with Ditka, he had NO relationship with him at all.
He was feisty, abrasive, brutally honest and made a lot more enemies than he did friends – and he was OK with all of that.
Summitt and Ryan – two people who were so much alike. So driven. So passionate. So competitive. Two people who changed their sport.
Both left us on Tuesday.[[In-content Ad]]
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We lost two icons, two legendary figures in their respective sports in a span of a couple of hours.
In real time, we were about an hour into dealing with the death of former University of Tennessee women’s basketball coach Pat Summit when we got word that former football coach Buddy Ryan had also passed away.
Both gone, but a very different feeling evoked in their passing.
Summit was just a kid, 22 years old and barely out of college herself, when she was handed the reins of the fledgling women’s team at Tennessee. The NCAA didn’t even acknowledge women’s basketball as an official sport yet, and there she was … in charge.
Summit decided that if she was going to be the coach and they were going to have a team, then they might as well do it right. She went on to win 1,098 games and eight national titles in 38 years.
Her contribution, however, goes way beyond that.
She hacked her way through the thorn bushes of sexism, small budgets, and the unknown of what women could do playing sports to lead millions of female athletes to where women’s sports are today – growing, stand-alone entities that have taken their rightful place in our society.
She did it by realizing there was only one person she could count on to start with – herself. She did the laundry, she made the travel arrangements – she did it.
Long before there was such a thing as Title IX, there was Pat Summit, daring anyone to tell her and her Lady Vols that they were “just women’s basketball.” She took that as a cuss word and she proved to one and all that, with hard work, skill and teamwork, women’s sports were a viable product that we would watch and be interested in. And we have been.
When you consider her impact on Americana, understand this: Pat Summit is responsible for the existence of the WNBA, the ESPN TV contract for the NCAA women’s basketball tournament, and the current popularity of high school girls sports (specifically basketball). If your daughter or granddaughter is playing or played sports at some level, you can credit Pat Summit for that.
And maybe most importantly, she proved to the world that you can be tough and competitive and intense, and still be a woman – an attractive woman at that. She broke the stereotype that you had to ‘act like a man’ to be an athlete. She proved that women didn’t have to hand in their ‘feminine card’ to play sports. She led the revolution that brought us to a place where athletic women were desirable.
And we should all thank her for that.
What made her death Tuesday after a five-year battle with early-onset dementia so ironic is that she also made women realize that their best asset could be their brain. Summit was a smart basketball coach. On the court and off she knew how to make adjustments and how to get the most out of people. In the end, the same mind that made her great betrayed her.
Think about it … she redefined the possibilities for half of the population of the world.
I don’t know what her gravestone will read, but it should say “Pat Summit, she taught us what a woman could be.”
For Buddy Ryan, half the world would rather spit on his gravestone than leave flowers.
Ryan, who was better known for his days as an assistant coach in the NFL than a head coach, also died Tuesday. He was 82.
Like Summit, he was well known for his harsh style and persona. He was a yeller and a screamer and, unlike Summit, the filter between his brain and his mouth had a lot of holes in it.
Like Summit, he was often caught on camera red-faced.
But like Summit, the people who knew him best – his former players and assistant coaches – loved him until his dying breath, and will love him until their own.
Ryan was a head coach of the Eagles and Cardinals, but he will always be best known as the ring leader of the best defense to ever take the field in the history of professional football.
Ryan changed football by implementing a scheme called the “46 Defense” as a defensive coordinator for the Bears. Its basic concept was this: “if the quarterback is running for his life or flat on his back, he can’t hurt us.” So Ryan crowded the line of scrimmage with fast, punishing linebackers. It was a numbers game. The Bears sent more defensive players than the offense could block.
Advantage defense.
The Bears of 1985 set a standard that few have approached since but none have matched. In their championship run at the end of that season, they pitched two home shutouts and then sacked Patriot quarterbacks a Super Bowl record seven times in a 46-10 win in New Orleans.
But Ryan and his boss, Bears head coach Mike Ditka, were too much alike to work out for long, so they parted ways. Ryan often said he didn’t have a bad relationship with Ditka, he had NO relationship with him at all.
He was feisty, abrasive, brutally honest and made a lot more enemies than he did friends – and he was OK with all of that.
Summitt and Ryan – two people who were so much alike. So driven. So passionate. So competitive. Two people who changed their sport.
Both left us on Tuesday.[[In-content Ad]]
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