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Tennessee Vols 13 most unlucky breaks between firing, bringing back Phillip Fulmer

By Caleb Calhoun

NASHVILLE, TN - NOVEMBER 22: Head coach Phillip Fulmer of the Tennessee Volunteers waves to the fans as he celebrates their 20-10 win over the Vanderbilt Commodores at Vanderbilt Stadium on November 22, 2008 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
NASHVILLE, TN - NOVEMBER 22: Head coach Phillip Fulmer of the Tennessee Volunteers waves to the fans as he celebrates their 20-10 win over the Vanderbilt Commodores at Vanderbilt Stadium on November 22, 2008 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images) /
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Photo by Craig Bisacre/Tennessee Athletics – Pool/Getty Images
Photo by Craig Bisacre/Tennessee Athletics – Pool/Getty Images /

8. Pat Summitt struck with Alzheimer’s, forced to retired, passes away.

I hate using this one in the scope of Tennessee Vols athletics. Pat Summitt’s untimely death was a tragedy for the entire sports world and humanity at large. If we were actually ranking these bad breaks, it would stand far above any of the others as the unluckiest one.

But, here we are. It was still a bad break for the University of Tennessee, and a horrific one at that. The Tennessee Lady Vols were still rolling as a program under Summitt, and after the 2011 year, they figured to enter the next season contending for a national championship again with so many veterans.

Summitt was beyond a point of pride for the university. She single-handedly lifted a sport into relevance, which no other coach in any sport can say. So in 2011, when she announced that she had dementia, it was a tragic shock for the sports world.

Part of this was the fact that she was likely coaching with it before she knew she had it, and that could have played a part in the Lady Vols not making a Final Four the previous two years. She did once draw a blank on the sidelines, which she said led her to get checked out to begin with.

Nonetheless, Summitt decided to go public, fight the disease, and coach with it for another year. It was an amazing sign of strength for her and did wonders for Alzheimer’s research. If you’re a person of faith, you would say God chose Summitt to attract this horrible disease because of how much good she could do fighting it, and there was some truth to that. If they find a cure for Alzheimer’s in the near future, it’s in no small part to Summitt’s courage.

But at the same time, not having her wisdom was a major blow to the Tennessee Lady Vols. She had to retire the next year, and Holly Warlick had to pick things back up. Warlick has underachieved by any measure, overseeing a slow decline in the program.

As a result, this was a major bad break for Tennessee Vols athletics. But again, I feel very uncomfortable getting into this in the context of sports. It’s too serious. There was just no way we could avoid it.

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