Quotes from Pat Summitt

Coaching is the great passion of my life, and the job to me has always been an opportunity to work with our student athletes and help them discover what they want.

I think that a lot of people would perceive my style as being intimidating. And although I don't want to intimidate kids, I am very demanding.

When you grow up on a dairy farm, cows don't take a day off. So you work every day and my dad always said, 'No one can outwork you.'

Silence is a form of communication, too. Sometimes less is more.

Competition got me off the farm and trained me to seek out challenges and to endure setbacks; and in combination with my faith, it sustains me now in my fight with Alzheimer's disease.

To me, teamwork is a lot like being part of a family. It comes with obligations, entanglements, headaches, and quarrels. But the rewards are worth the cost.

We keep score in life because it matters. It counts. It matters. Too many people opt out and never discover their own abilities because they fear failure. They don't understand commitment.

It's harder to stay on top than it is to make the climb, Continue to seek new goals.

The ultimate goal of discipline is to teach self discipline.

Group discipline produces a unified effort toward a common goal.

I'd wake up in the morning and I would think, 'Where am I?' I'd have to gather myself.

Competition got me off the farm and trained me to seek out challenges and to endure setbacks and in combination with my faith, it sustains me now in my fight with Alzheimer's disease.

Kay very calmly and sweetly said, "You know, Pat, how much better do you think Lea Henry and Cindy Noble are going to get at this point?" She was saying ease up—it's enough. I had reached the point of diminishing returns. "I think they are both trying really hard to please you, but how much more can they possibly do?" she said. "I just wonder if you've really thought about that.

Well," he said, "you don't take donkeys to the Kentucky Derby.

You'll be finished when it's done. And it's not done till it's done right.

December 13, 2011, Piscataway, New Jersey, on the road with the Lady Vols, seven months after diagnosis

She coached every day like it was the national championship game. Every practice was coached like that. It was never a letup. I can't ever remember a day where she was tired, ever. —MICKIE DEMOSS

in the absence of feedback, people will fill in the blanks with a negative. They

in the absence of feedback, people will fill in the blanks with a negative. They will assume you don't care about them or don't like them.

There is an old saying: a champion is someone who is willing to be uncomfortable.

God doesn't take things away to be cruel. He takes things away to make room for other things. He takes things away to lighten us. He takes things away so we can fly.

they don't care how much you know, unless they know how much you care.

I remember every player—every single one—who wore the Tennessee orange, a shade that our rivals hate, a bold, aggravating color that you can usually find on a roadside crew, "or in a correctional institution," as my friend Wendy Larry jokes. But to us the color is a flag of pride, because it identifies us as Lady Vols and therefore as women of an unmistakable type. Fighters. I remember how many of them fought for a better life for themselves. I just met them halfway.

very few people are able to organize and direct followers, which is a far more subtle and multifaceted skill. Leadership is really a form of temporary authority that others grant you, and they only follow you if they find you consistently credible. It's all about perception—and if teammates find you the least bit inconsistent, moody, unpredictable, indecisive, or emotionally unreliable, then they balk and the whole team is destabilized.