In the Footsteps of Champions

The University of Tennessee Lady Volunteers, the First Three Decades

Debby Schriver

• Publisher: University of Tennessee Press
• Year: 2025
• eBook ISBN: 9798895271698
• Subtopic: North American History

In the Footsteps of Champions: The University of Tennessee Lady Volunteers, the First Three Decades invites readers to experience the journey of women's intercollegiate athletics from the beginning to the present day. While the record-setting basketball dynasty of Coach Pat Summitt with the regional and national successes of ten other sports teams create fascinating stories in themselves, the saga of the Lady Volunteers actually begins as early as 1893, when the first women enrolled as students at the University of Tennessee.

This book captures the enthusiasm, determination, and vision of those who created the foundations for this leading women's athletic program. Student-athletes, coaches, fans, faculty, and staff share their memories of the years prior to Title IX legislation, the first years of the program's development as a free-standing department and the strong presence that the Lady Volunteers program has today. Special features include first-person stories by coaches and student-athletes from the era preceding 1976 and the three following decades. Unique views from behind the scenes, plus the largest collection of photographs featuring women's intercollegiate athletics ever published will draw the interest of the historian, sports enthusiast, and follower of women's athletics. Readers will trace the journeys of their favorite Lady Volunteers from childhood through college and to the successful lives they lead today. The perspectives of these student-athletes provide insight on the role of sports in education and human development. In the Footsteps of Champions is fun to read, inspiring, and appealing to anyone who enjoys sports.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Halftitle Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Foreword
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction: “We’ve Come a Long Way, Baby!”
• 1. Coaches, Scholarships, and a Little Red Wagon, 1976–1986
• 2. Seriously Fun, 1987–1996
• 3. Ringing in a New Century, 1997–2007
• 4. “Beyond the Win”
• Appendices
• Selected Bibliography