A GREAT WAY TO SAY "THANKS COACH SUMMITT"

When I first came to LSU to work for Dale Brown he had just had a special dinner honoring John Wooden and Adolph Rupp.  I remember asking Coach Brown why he felt compelled to honor Coach Rupp who had coached at our rival school Kentucky.  He explained how Kentucky had an amazing effect on the growth of basketball at LSU and especially the SEC.  Because of the tremendous success of the Wildcats, many SEC schools were finally forced to come up with the money and resources to grow their programs.

The same can be said about Coach Pat Summitt.  SEC women's basketball is great because of what Coach Summitt and the University of Tennessee accomplished throughout the decades.  They have represented a program of excellence on the court and in the classroom and did it all the right way.  And it's not just SEC teams in regard to the "Coach Summitt Effect."  In fact, it is near impossibly to imagine where women's basketball would be right now if not for the Lady Vols.  The success of the NCAA tournament and the Final Four?  Television coverage?  Media attention?  Thank you Coach Summitt!

How about attendance?  Is there a school that has played Tennessee in the past 20 years in their arena where the game wasn't the largest draw for their school that year?  Here would be a great stat to look up.  How many teams can open up their media guide to the page with the largest home crowd in school history and see that it was against the Lady Vols when they came to town.

Coach Summitt is by far the largest reason for the growth of women's basketball -- on all levels -- over the past 30 years.

And now it's time to say thank you Coach Summitt!

STEP ONE
Please take the time to read about Kara Lawson, her relationship with Coach Summitt and how she is running a race to raise funds to fight Alzheimer's in honor of her coach.

http://es.pn/owEBj7

STEP TWO
Then please take the time to click on this link http://www.alznyc.org/karalawson/ and make a donation.

STEP THREE
Forward this to EVERYONE you know and ask for their support.  It would be an amazing way to help Kara pay tribute to her coach, show Coach Summitt how much we appreciate her, and help fight this terrible disease.