Kim Mulkey's relationship with Pat Summitt

i could sit here and talk about pat summitt and i think i will for a while when i was a player we played tennessee every year and we beat them every year and i'll never forget pat played everybody she wasn't afraid to play anybody and she said before her career is over if the last thing she does is beat leon barmore in louisiana tech and then i was selected to be on the 84 olympic team and she was the coach and i'm starting i'm doing great and we go to taipei taiwan before the olympics and i wake up and can't walk and had a stress fracture in the top of my foot so immediately my thought was i've worked all my life and now they're gonna have to pick up an alternate and i remember her calling me in her room and being that she was a player at one time i know she just knew what i was thinking and she just comforted me and said i will not pick up an alternate you've earned the right to be on this team and the doctors tell me in four weeks you're good to go and so that was the first time that i really had a one-on-one with her in a hotel room and then we of course go the olympics we win the gold medal and then i get into coaching and i remember that you know pat had tyler and i was pregnant with my first child and i was like can i do this can i really do this and be a good mother too and pat came to louisiana tech when i was an assistant coach and i kind of cornered her before their practice started and i said help me tell me how i can do this how can i make this work and she again comforted me and she told me that it can be done and she told me all the things that she did to help get help as a mother and be a very good coach and then years go by and i go through my divorce and years go by and she's going through her divorce and she called me and she said i need your help well i thought to myself wow pat summitt is calling me about her divorce and help her and walk her through what to expect and how to handle it with the children and how to handle it financially and all those things and that's the kind of relationship i had with her i was not one of her players didn't know her like the players do or did i was not one of her assistants but those moments just will last forever when she was diagnosed um with alzheimer's do you know who her last game was against the very last game she ever coached and i'll never forget that press conference it was a bittersweet moment because while we were happy i just realized she wasn't ever going to coach again and how happy can you be [Music] for your team and yet at the same time realize your role model and somebody that uh you looked up to and has done so much for this game i didn't take any great pleasure in winning that game other than your competitor and then um kramer was playing baseball here at lsu and they were in knoxville and i of course flew to the game and he bugged me all that morning mom go see pat go see pat at that time she was in a facility and i didn't want to see her i knew where she was health-wise and i just refused to go see her and he just wouldn't let up and something that morning just told me go and i called and got permission at that time from holly warlick who who had the lady in charge and i went to see her and it was um just touching um it was all i kept telling her was i love you and she would repeat it and i thought one of the funny cute stories is when they brought her to meet me in the the room that i was waiting for her and she was drinking a purple gatorade as they brought her to me and i just thought that's so pat because you know she's she's an athlete she's drinking a gatorade and then four weeks later i was awakened by a phone call before daylight that she had passed away and um you know she was a a role model for me she was a mentor because our lives were very similar both as competitors as former student athletes as coaches and mothers and and divorced mothers and so we back pat they'll never be another one like her ever i don't care how many championships anybody wins she has done more for this sport than most people really know and um i was blessed to have been a part of her life although a very small part she was a very big part of my life

Channel: LSU Sports

Views: 61,841

Keywords: lsu, sports, baton rouge, lsu sports, football, gymnastics, basketball, baseball, baton rouge sports, coach o, louisiana, LSU Basketball, LSU Women’s Basketball, Kim Mulkey, NCAA Women’s Basketball, PMAC, SEC Basketball, SEC, NCAA, March Madness, Tournament, Seimone Augustus, Basketball Hall of Fame, head coach, Jailin Cherry, Khayla Pointer, Ryann Paine, Emily Ward, Sarah Shematsi, Ajae Petty, Hannah Gusters, Timia Ware, Amani Bartlett, Faustine Aifuwa, Grace Hall, Awa Trasi

Id: m7rxqJtnbGA

Length: 5min 22sec (322 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 16 2022