It’s somewhat bittersweet that the phenomenal career of University of Tennessee women’s basketball coach Pat Summitt, who is steppingt downstripping  almost a year after being diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s, is coming to a close just two months before the 40th anniversary of Title IX, the landmark law that paved the way for greater gender equity in high school and college sports. When Summitt, who piled up 1,098 wins—more than any other college basketball coach—and eight national titles in her 38-year tenure, started at Tennnessee, she drove the van. Her team once slept in an opponent’s gym the night before a game. Now, the Lady Vols, and other successful women’s programs, fly on charters, stay in top-notch hotels, and are a national television staple. No single woman is more responsible for this leap forward than Summitt.

As a journalist, I’ll surely miss Summitt on the sidelines. She is one of the more approachable, candid, and downright fun college coaches around. I first met her in the fall of 2005, when I was profiling a star Tennessee freshman named Candice Parker, who had made national headlines by beating the boys at an all-star dunk contest the previous year. (Parker would lead the Lady Vols to a pair of national titles.) I sat in on a Tennessee practice. You can judge a coach’s competence based on how he or she orchestrates a practice. In games, things unfold that are beyond a coach’s control. In practice, the coach’s whistle controls the flow. Is the practice crisp? Is the coach a constant teacher? Does the coach see things you and I don’t? Are the players paying attention?