Newscoma

Nadine Gearin has died.

For those of you who A.) Don’t watch Lady Vols Basketball or B.) aren’t from Hoots,  Nadine was an icon of women’s basketball.

Pat Summitt went to school at the University of Tennessee at Martin and her mentor was Ms. Nadine. To know Coach Gearin, you have to understand that she was a tough coach who led the Lady Pacers (now the Women’s Skyhawks) during a time before Title IX. It was different world back in the 70 and the late 60s.

You see, Nadine broke barriers. And the pebble that she threw in the water created an eventual tsunami with a woman who would become the coach in college history with more wins than you could shake a stick at.

And Nadine fueled that fire within Summitt nearly 40 years ago.

From a story from 2005 at the Knoxville News Sentinel where Summitt talked about Gearin.

By comparison, Gearin, Summitt’s coach at Tennessee-Martin, was more improvising than exacting.

She coached basically in order for Summitt and her teammates to have a coach.

The team often played several games in a day. If Gearin noticed that her players were sagging, she’d call them together in a timeout huddle, break an ammonia stick and wave it under their noses.

“We had no weights, no conditioning,” Summitt said. “But we had ammonia sticks.”

And they had a team.

“She was more of a friend, still is today,” Summitt said of Gearin. “She did this to allow us to have an opportunity.”

As I said, Nadine Gearin created a tsunami.

Coach Gearin and former UT Martin Women’s Athletic Director Bettye Giles have been the heart and soul, as well as an inspiration, for women athletes across the country for decades. They opened doors that had been nailed shut.

Here in Hoots, both women were at most community events and have supported the area with a fervor.

To say that West Tennessee has lost an icon is an understatement.

For more information about women who helped basketball get where it is today that have a history from this area, go here where you will see Lin Dunn, Pat Summitt, Bettye Giles and Nadine when they were honored in 2003 at UT Martin.

Gearin and Giles also claim impressive resumes built during more than 40 years of UT Martin service. Gearin, a Weakley County native and a member of the UT Martin Athletics Hall of Fame, led efforts to develop women’s basketball at the university. She coached the Lady Pacers from 1969-74, taking her 1971 team to the first national basketball tournament of
the Division of Girls and Women’s Sports. One of her brightest basketball players was Pat Head, who first rose to national fame in 1973 by qualifying for the USA World University
Games team.

snip

Giles and Gearin both worked to secure Summitt a graduate assistant position with the UT women’s basketball team after Summitt’s graduation. The opportunity for a graduate assistant position became an offer to coach the team. Summitt remembered questioning whether a 22-year-old college graduate was ready to coach the UT women’s basketball team. She was hesitant, but Gearin and Giles never lost faith in their
prize pupil.

Coach Nadine Gearin will be missed.

UPDATE: Skyhawk BB Girl reports this:

Nadine Gearin visitation 5 pm-9 pm Wednesday at William Funeral Home in Greenfield. Funeral at two o’clock on Thursday.

As you probably already know, Pat Summitt just won her eighth national championship last night. What you may not know is that she has some local ties here in Hoots.

In a story from 2006, you are introduced to two women I absolutely adore. And they are the ones that knew Pat Summitt was something special back in the day.

TWO SPECIAL LADIES THANK LADY VOLS

After the Lady Vols defeated UT-Martin Tuesday night, an interesting thing happened in the Tennessee locker room.

Two elderly gray-haired women walked into the dressing quarters with Pat Summitt. One was Betty Giles. The other, Nadene Guerin. Giles was the athletic director at UT-Martin when Summitt played for the Skyhawks. Guerin was Summitt’s coach.

Some 32 years ago, they went to bat for Summitt, recommending her for the Lady Vols job, even though Summitt, age 22, had never coached before. Giles and Guerin saw something special back then in a special person.

Ms. Betty and Ms. Nadine are amazing. If you ever talk to Summitt, ask her about these two women. They are the two coolest people you’d ever meet, very much into philanthropy in the area and very supportive of young women. They opened doors for not only Summitt, but for people like, well, me.

They made things possible for a lot of women. More than can even be expressed in words on a blog.

Everyone needs mentors. You couldn’t ask for better role models than these two incredible women.

Tennessee Lady Vols head coach Pat Summitt has tangled with some tough teams over the years, but Wednesday the run-in was with a raccoon.

Summitt had taken her golden Lab, Sally, for a late-night walk, when they encountered the raccoon on the back deck of Summitt’s home.

“I momentarily lost it,” Summitt said. “The raccoon was about to attack. I just knocked it off the deck, and fortunately nothing happened but a dislocated shoulder, and it’s back in place.”

Heh. You know she would kill any worthy opponent although she has a bum shoulder.

Pat Summitt could really whoop your ass.

You got that, didn’t you?

From Pat Summitt’s Blogspot site via Silence.

Photo credit.