Kim Mulkey, head coach of the Lady Baylor Bears, gives Coach Pat Summitt of the Lady Vols a hug following Tennessee's loss to Baylor in the regional finals of the WNCAA tournament.

Is it time for Pat Summitt to retire?  

Women's basketball owes a debt to Pat Summitt of Tennessee that is beyond repayment.  The only coach Tennessee women's basketball has ever had, she took over the program in its infancy when she was only 22 years old.  

Women's basketball was brand new then, having only been mandated two years earlier at the college level by Title IX.  In those early days, Pat drove the team bus, did most of her own recruiting, coached and even janitored and did laundry for her team.  The team was lucky to draw 150 people to its games....mostly parents and boyfriends.

But Pat kept advocating for more.  Along the way, during those thirty plus years, she won 1008 games, more than any other coach....man or woman...and eight national championships.

Because of her, storied women's programs were born at places like Connecticut, Stanford, Baylor,  Oklahoma, and Notre Dame. Women's basketball caught fire with rabid fans like Toby Keith and many more. The gyms began to draw upwards of 10,000 people per game.

Then at age 58, Pat, who could always "do seven things at one time," as her son Tyler explained, "could only do four."  She began experiencing memory lapses and extreme fatigue.

Last summer, Pat underwent a series of tests.  The diagnosis was devastating--early onset senile dementia, Alzheimer's type.  This particular form of Alzheimers affects only five per cent of the total population, but Pat, unfortunately,  had fallen victim. Pat vowed to fight, to continue coaching as long as she could, though she certainly no longer needs the money, making upwards of a million a year.

Though she is still officially Tennessee's head coach, a position the school says will be hers as long as she wants it,  she no longer coaches the team. Assistants do that, they meet with the press; and, as I watched her sit docilely at the end of the bench against Baylor, I truly felt it was time for her to step aside.  

The spark is gone;  the fire is gone; the steely stare at the referees;  the opposing team and her players is gone.  

Her son Tyler stated at the WNCAA tournament that once the season ended he, his mother, and the administration would sit down to discuss what Pat's role in the future should be.

 I think a picture is worth a thousand words.  The picture with Kim Mulkey, who said she gets absolutely no pleasure from playing Tennessee with what "Pat is going through", clearly reveals how quickly she is deteriorating.

Tragic.