FREDONIA, TN (CLARKSVILLE NOW) – When Fredonia Community Center celebrated its 100th anniversary this month, on proud display was a boat decorated in University of Tennessee orange and white. The reason for it being there is part of the history of Fredonia through one of its native daughters: legendary coach Pat Summitt.
Patricia Sue Head was born on June 14, 1952, in Montgomery County, when the women’s basketball scene looked a lot different than it does today. From an early age, she played against boys and girls on dirt courts around Fredonia School, off of Highway 12 in west Montgomery County.
Bonnie Welch was five years older than Pat, but she remembers the young basketball player coming up behind her and already showing a love for the game.
“We started up that first basketball team at Fredonia in ’59 and ’60 – seventh and eighth grade. There hadn’t been a team up there in years,” Welch told Clarksville Now. “Pat was in the third grade. And the principal had to ask her, could she play there? She said that she was 5’8″ in the third grade.”
Moving to play ball in Cheatham County
Summitt craved competition from an early age. She’d play against the boys, she’d play against older girls, anything that gave her an opportunity to play the game she loved. That competitive nature eventually led her outside of Clarksville.
Clarksville High School did not have a girls basketball team at the time, which left Summitt without an opportunity to continue playing locally. She eventually convinced her father, Richard Head, to move; they relocated to the Henrietta area, just over the county line in Cheatham County.
“Her daddy, he saw that she had such an interest in it. He moved to Cheatham County so she could go to Cheatham County and play basketball,” Welch said
From there, the rest was history.
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8 national championships, Olympic gold
Summitt went from playing basketball in the barn lofts of Montgomery County to winning eight national championships during her 38 seasons as the head coach at the University of Tennessee. Despite all of Summitt’s success, Welch said she never forgot where she came from.
Summitt remained close with the friends and family in Clarksville and frequently returned home.
“She loved family … and she’d come home and she’d been here at our house. We’d have her over here and have a meal,” Welch said. “Her mother would have meals up there at her house, and all of us would come.”
Boat celebrates success, local history
Welch’s connection to Summitt became more personal later in life. Her husband, David, was Summitt’s first cousin. “Her mother and my husband’s mother were sisters,” Welch said.
Today, Summitt’s legacy remains intertwined with the community where she grew up. Her story lives on through the people who knew her, the places where she first learned to play and even a unique piece of memorabilia that remains in the area.
After one of Summitt’s milestones at Tennessee, she was given a boat – a 1994 Sea Ray – that eventually made its way to Welch’s husband, David. That boat is now more than 30 years old and remains at Fredonia.
For Welch, it is another reminder that no matter how far Summitt’s career took her, a piece of her story has always remained in Montgomery County.
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