Tennessee Fan!!!

Well my husband was born & raised in Tennessee. He has told me stories about when he was a boy laying awake & listening to games on his radio. He is a huge fan. I like sports ,always have & always will. Never really followed a team, but love to watch & root for a team. Since marrying Michael I now have a "team". I am sad when they lose & over the moon when they win ! Always too loud during the games , well for my husbands liking :)I cried when they let Phillip go, just heartbroken!! We love Pat Summit! Wow what a woman, what a list of accomplishments. But scary, you see the faces she makes & how she yells at those girls when they mess up. Im 1000's of miles away & Im scared in my own living room! She is AWESOME. I was looking around for some facts on her & found this on another blog..DISCLAIMER...I did not write the following ,but it is GREAT!!!!
There is no greater example of what can be achieved by women. They can do better than men can even in traditionally male fields. Or arenas for that matter.


Pat Summitt will perhaps meet one of the greatest milestones in sports history. Monday night, Pat Summitt will be facing Oklahoma with the chance to win her 1,000th game. One thousand games won, not played. WON!

It would take me a month to list her accomplishments. They have already made documentaries on her. She has won so many Championships, both regional and national. Her players have gone on to achieve greatness. There will certainly be a movie made of her life, thus giving one dynamic actress the chance to play one of the greatest figures ever, perhaps the greatest in College history. In national history.

Remember all the whoop-de-do when Mark McGuire and Sammy Sosa were trying to break home-run records? Well, add a few hundred to their totals and that is how many games her teams have won. A home-run doesn't always mean the game is won. It is a personal triumph and record. The team winning, now that is something to cheer for.

My school's team beat them for the first time in 16 match ups. I can't tell you how big that was for our team. Everyone they play is a Cinderella story because her teams are always so hard to beat. They are the "game" that every NCAA women's team wishes to win. They are the ones that everybody wants to take down. Half the people who show up to the games are there as much to see her as to see the teams play. Many of us root for her and her team even if they are our strongest competition. It is a woman in a man's field outdoing what even the best men will ever hope to achieve. She affects the lives of these girls in a way that perhaps nobody else has been able to do. She makes her male counterparts envious. When she walks into an arena for a few moments time stops and even her fiercest competitors stand and cheer.

I'll share a little story about how big Pat is. I work for a competitor. One of my students dates one of her players and when he did something he knew would piss me off he had his girlfriend, Alex Fuller, get Pat to sign a picture for me. Not an 8x10 but a full color 22x28 photo made out to me as a fan. Of course I can't display it,lol. I work at Vanderbilt and we are the cross-state rival. They call it the "War on 40". That is when Vanderbilt meets UT on any turf, floor, or any other sporting event. This war has brought me out during the worst weather to sit and freeze or to stand and cheer. It is a rivalry for the ages.

This lady is inspirational and she is so much fun to watch. When she speaks people listen. When she shakes a finger grown men cower in their boots. I often listen to her coaching sessions just to see what it is that she has that many other coaches or people in power don't posses. Her whole strategy is to make everybody a winner. Not just herself. The satisfaction comes from sharing her abilities with as many other people as she can. Even when she beats our team she will spend the bulk of her interview praising our team and our coach and let's everybody know that her girls were challenged by our girls. The last ten minutes of the game we recently won she would stand in the huddle for minutes and say absolutely nothing. Nothing. The cameras are pointed on her constantly. When she knew the game was over she simply sat on the bench trying to come up with a plan for the next game. She doesn't dwell on why they lost but how they can win the next one. That is why they always win. Or almost always.

Our ladies team wins it's share of games. We have banners and pennants from major tournaments. Our coach has won about 300 games. Both schools try to recruit the same girls and the only reason we get any of them is that our school has a better reputation for educational excellence. Many lady athletes go for the education because women's athletics are not supported and therefore they want to go on to be a Doctor or a Lawyer. But Pat is changing that. Candace Parker, her star player who graduated last year went on to win an Olympic Gold Medal and was named female athlete of the year. She is being paid six figures and can make as much doing product endorsements. That has never happened in women's team athletics. Yeah, we have the William's sisters and there are a few other tennis stars or golfers that earn up to the same level as some of their male counterparts. But team athletics for women are still not taken as seriously as the men are. And they are just as good and just as much fun to watch.

Congrats in advance. Tune in and see history made before your eyes. If it isn't Oklahoma it will be another team this year. 1,000 games won. No small achievement and accomplished by a woman. A powerful, strong, intelligent, articulate woman. She is inspiring. I will be watching and cheering on my team's greatest rival. She is an American success story that may take hundreds of years to "best". I am guessing if she wins you will see it on the National News because it is absolutely unheard of for any coach to win 800 games let alone a thousand. Monday night. Watch it.

Good job Pat. Good job Candace. You have impacted this girl's life and she will go on to do the same.

This was "borrowed" from Dancing Bears Blog on VOX.
I hope he doesnt mind as I am just sharing the same love! Nice writing Dancing Bear!
I was unable to transfer the pictures he had posted with the story which are great, so his is a link to his site if you would like to see them. http://dancingbear.vox.com/library/posts/2009/

As of the time of me, Glenna posting this. We did not win the Oklahoma game. I would have love to see them take down the #2 ranked team, however I think it will be sweeter in "The Summitt" at Home Watch this Thursday Feb. 5th when they play Georgia, you may just watch history being made!!!