Former Tennessee Lady Vols coach Pat Summitt still impacts the sports world a year after her death

In the year since she passed away, just a few huge moments happened in the world of sports that have Pat Summitt’s fingerprints all over them.

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Pat Summitt has been gone for a year. But the decades of hard work she spent trying to promote women’s basketball impacted the whole sports world.

And it’s unfortunate the Lady Vols coaching legend wasn’t there to see how those effects played out in the past year.

Let’s go with an obvious one first. Candace Parker, one of Summitt’s greatest players, won her first WNBA championship.

As one of the stars of women’s basketball, she still can’t stop mentioning Summitt whenever she gets the chance, evidenced by her first comments in her postgame interview after capturing the title.

Let’s step away from Parker’s emotional moment, though, and look at what else was in that video. Did you see how packed the house was for that WNBA Finals game between the Los Angeles Sparks and the Minnesota Lynx? It was the final game of the series, and fans were rabid and loud.

Never forget that Summitt had a huge impact on the start of the WNBA 20 years earlier, and that excitement was the fruits of her labor.

But what about the excitement in college? Without Summitt, UCONN was dominating the women’s game and seemed invincible.

That was until one of the most memorable games in women’s history happened, as the Mississippi State Bulldogs upset Geno Auriemma’s Huskies in the Final Four of the Women’s NCAA Tournament.

Sure, winning 100-plus straight games before that would show a lack of parity. But Summitt’s impact in elevating the sport of women’s basketball is the only reason people cared about a team dominating that sport anyway.

And it’s why people were so exciting when the Bulldogs won the game.

Speaking of her impact in the college ranks, the first women’s college basketball season without her saw 15 head coaches that studied under her.

Talk about a massive coaching tree!

What about other sports. Summitt did not just elevate women’s basketball, after all. She elevated women’s sports across the spectrum.

Would there have been such promotion in women’s UFC, and Ronda Rousey, for instance, if Summitt had not laid the foundation in the 1980s to get people to care about women’s sports?

Probably not.

And that would have meant that the storyline of Rousey’s rise and massive fall would never have mattered.

Think about other stars still in the news like Serena Williams or Olympic stars from last summer like Katie Ledecky.

Her impact even goes beyond the sports world. If she could see the alzheimer’s patients she was helping via the Pat Summitt clinic, she may be prouder than ever. ESPN had a report on that today.

Of course, the foundation notes better than anybody how her impact is felt. It posted numerous video tributes to her from major figures on Wednesday to honor her.

But again, the saddest part of her premature passing was that the women’s sports world will continue to grow more relevant because of her work.

And she will never be there to see it.

Next: Top 10 Vols coaches in school history

But as we remember Pat Summitt a year later, think about the little things in sports. Consider the next news story surrounding a female athlete.

You will be able to connect it to Summitt’s work, which takes her legacy far beyond her wins and championships.