Seventh Time’s the Charm

The basketball Lady Vols captured their seventh national title by beating Rutgers in the NCAA championship game on April 3. The victory marked Coach Pat Summitt’s 947th career win, adding to her reputation as the all-time winning-est coach in NCAA basketball history.

You know Summitt ranks among the greats of basketball. You know Candace Parker is one of the best ever to play for Tennessee. But you may not know some of the tidbits Tennessee Alumnus has unearthed about UT’s winning women. To celebrate their “seventh heaven” win, here are seven little known facts about the players and Coach Summitt.

Seven Things you may not know about the players

1. Two Lady Vols–Shannon Bobbitt and Nicky Anosike–had never driven a car before coming to the University of Tennessee.
2. Shannon Bobbitt, at 5-foot-2, is the smallest player to ever play for an SEC team and the smallest player to win a scholarship to UT.
3. Six-foot-four Candace Parker has two NBA connections. Her brother, Anthony Parker, is a 6-foot-6 guard for the Toronto Raptors; her boyfriend, Shelden Williams, 6-foot-9, plays for the Atlanta Hawks.
4. Elizabeth Curry was a student manager for the Lady Vols in 2004–05, earning the head manager position in 2005-06. She was a team walk-on this season.
5. Nicky Anosike grew up near Rutgers, but turned down a scholarship there to play for the Lady Vols.
6. Sports management is the most popular major among the players. Candace Parker, Sidney Spencer, and Elizabeth Curry have all chosen this field of study. Nicky Anosike is majoring in sociology/criminal justice, political science, and legal studies; Alex Fuller in pre-exercise science; Alexis Hornbuckle in arts and sciences; Dominque Redding in sociology; and Alberta Auguste and Shannon Bobbitt in psychology. Cait McMahan is still undecided.
7. At least two Lady Vols are thinking about medical careers. Alex Fuller hopes to go to medical school and be a pediatrician. Shannon Bobbitt wants to be a nurse.

Seven Things you may not know about Coach Pat Summitt

1. She was known as “Trish” to her high-school friends.
2. She is a good down-home country cook. Her specialty is fried green tomatoes.
3. Coaching the Lady Vols was her first job, other than working on her family’s farm.
4. She is the first women’s basketball coach to appear on a Wheaties box. That box came out in February 2007.
5. She is the first women’s basketball coach to get a corporate endorsement. She is now appearing in State Farm Insurance commercials.
6. This was the first time Summitt recruited junior college transfers, Shannon Bobbitt from Trinity Valley Community College in Texas and Alberta Auguste from Central Florida Community College. Both Bobbitt and Auguste turned out to be playmakers in the tournament.
7. Every student-athlete who completed her 4 years of eligibility under Summitt has graduated from Tennessee.