Every season, the SEC gives each women’s basketball team one “We Back Pat” game to honor Pat Summitt and raise money for the former Tennessee coach’s foundation.
When Vanderbilt took on Missouri in the Commodores’ “We Back Pat” game, it featured two coaches with close connections to Summitt. Tigers coach Kellie Harper played for Summitt at Tennessee in the 1990s and Shea Ralph’s mother played for the Lady Vols under Summitt.
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Vanderbilt (16-0, 3-0 SEC) defeated Missouri (12-5, 0-3), 99-68.
“I think we lost an icon, is what we lost,” Harper said. “We lost a cornerstone. The foundation. But because of her and because of what she did for women’s basketball, she promoted women’s basketball when she did not have to promote women’s basketball. A lot of the parity that we get to see now, she helped that. … I think she would be proud of the game and how competitive it is right now.”
The Pat Summitt Foundation raises money for Alzheimer’s research after Summitt was forced to retire due to early-onset Alzheimer’s in 2012 and died in 2016.
“It’s always meaningful anytime you get to honor someone that does something really special with their life,” Ralph said. “Pat Summitt impacts all of us daily. The work that she did impacted me personally. … She helped lay the foundation for what you guys are witnessing in our game right now, and that’s real. So any time we get to honor a woman who does that for other women, I’m all about it.”
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Aria Gerson covers Vanderbilt athletics for The Tennessean. Contact her at agerson@gannett.com or on X @aria_gerson.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Shea Ralph, Kellie Harper talk Pat Summitt after Vanderbilt-Missouri
