"She said, 'get out there and knock some people down'": When Pat Summitt's son, Tyler, shed light on Tennessee great's fiercely competitive nature

Pat Summitt was the Lady Vols basketball coach from 1974 to 2012. She led Tennessee to eight national championships and even held the record for most wins in NCAA basketball history until Geno Auriemma passed her last year.

Following her Alzheimer's diagnosis in May 2011, Summitt stepped down as head coach of the Lady Vols after the 2011-12 season. She also created the Summitt Foundation, dedicated to fighting Alzheimer's disease and raising awareness.

During an Evening with Champions gathering in July 2015, a couple of Pat Summitt's friends took the audience down memory lane, reliving some of the tales from this great coach's life. The function was a charity event aimed at raising money for Alzheimer's research.

Her son Tyler, who could not attend, shared a funny yet revealing story — via a pre-recorded tape — about his mother's extremely competitive nature when he was a child.

"I was about 5 years old," Tyler said in his message, per The Tennessean. "I was playing soccer. I came over at halftime and said, 'Hey mom, how am I doing?' She said, 'You're not being aggressive enough. You need to get out there and knock some people down.'

"I went out there and I think I made two or three kids cry. I was aggressive. After the game, I went over to mom and said, 'You're telling me to be aggressive, but my coach tells me I'm not playing my position.' She didn't know I was the goalie."

Tyler followed in his mother's footsteps and became the head coach at Louisiana Tech for two seasons.

Tyler Summitt once shared how mother Pat Summitt shaped his core parenting values

Pat Summitt's son, Tyler Summitt, is the father of three children — two sons and a daughter. He welcomed a baby girl in February 2023 and named her after his late mother: Patricia Lakelyn Summitt.

In an interview with the Knoxville News Sentinel in June 2023, Tyler opened up about the values in parenting that his mother instilled in him.

"Mom taught me a lot of things, but some of the things didn’t sink in. Now it amazes me what she was able to do—still work full time," he said. "She won the national championship six months after I was born.

"It’s just pretty crazy, the things she was able to do while having me with her. And so now, with Breck (his eldest son), it makes me appreciate even more everything she was able to accomplish, but still be super present and have me by her side."

Pat Summitt won her third NCAA title in March 1991 after she gave birth to Tyler in September 1990.