
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, April 1, 1991                   TAG: 9104010057
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: B1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Doug Doughty
DATELINE: NEW ORLEANS                                LENGTH: Short

SUMMITT: MOTHER OF ALL CHAMPIONS

If she has any problem differentiating her three NCAA championships, Tennessee basketball coach Pat Summitt always can remember the Lady Vols' 1991 title as her first as a mother.

Moments after the horn sounded an end to Tennessee's 70-67 overtime victory over Virginia, Summitt embraced her 6-month-old son Tyler, who was wearing a T-shirt with a cross through the UVa logo, much like a "no smoking" sign.

"Some friends of mine from Virginia sent it to me," Summitt said. "When I held up the T-shirt on the team bus this morning, the players got really fired up."

Tennessee didn't need much incentive, having lost a chance to play for the championship on its home floor when it fell to Virginia 79-75 last year in the final of the East Regional.

Summitt, who at 38 is in her 17th season as Tennessee coach, was pregnant at the time and gave birth Sept. 21 to her first child.

"When I went into labor, I was in an airplane and the pilot wanted to land in Roanoke [Va.]," Summitt said. "I told the pilot, `There's no way I'm having this baby in Virginia.' "

The pilot headed the plane for Knoxville, Tenn., and Summitt, who had been on a recruiting trip, later gave birth without complications.

"There was no disrespect intended toward the University of Virginia because they just as easily could have been national champions today," Summitt said referring to the T-shirt.

by CNB