Pat Summitt

I once watched a biography of Pat Summitt, the longtime and, yes, legendary women's basketball head coach at Tennessee. Had to be 15 years ago.

I immediately liked her. Her fire, her compassion, her will, all the usual reasons that you've heard.

It's probably easy to dislike Summitt if you're a rival of the Vols. Or if you're from Connecticut.

I'm not.

So it was that yesterday, I sadly read of Summitt's announcement that she has early stages of dementia. Summitt is 59, and without sounding trite of trivial, I hope she can deal with this as best as she can.

Obviously, it's the beginning of an unpleasant fade.

Her friend Sally Jenkins, she of the Washington Post, wrote a terrific article that ran yesterday. It does everything more justice than I can do.