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Sports Seriously
Few people are as synonymous with women’s college basketball as Pat Summitt.
And March Madness is as fitting of a time as any to debut a documentary on her.
A new film focused on the late coach of the Tennessee Lady Vols who became a legend in the sport by piling up championships and inspiring women everywhere is set to premier on Hulu and Hulu on Disney+ for bundle subscribers on March 25. It will later air on ESPN2 on March 29, and then on ESPN on April 5.
The film, “Breaking Glass: The Pat Summitt Story,” is executive-produced by “Good Morning America” co-anchor Robin Roberts and directed by Emmy-award-winning filmmaker Dawn Porter. Presented with the intimacy of a biopic, Summitt’s story is told mostly in her own voice, but supplemented with original interviews with Billie Jean King, Peyton Manning, Dawn Staley, Tamika Catchings and others. The film leans on never-before-seen archival footage and pulls material from Summitt’s personal VHS tapes, voice recordings and photographs.
Roberts was a reporter for a TV station in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1987 when she first met Summitt. They remained friends for decades through tough times, like Roberts’ cancer battles and Summitt’s early onset Alzheimer’s diagnosis.
“Robin was one of my mom’s closest friends, and there is nobody my family trusts more to lead this project,” Summitt’s son Tyler said in a statement.
The film encompasses Summitt’s life and career, beginning with her upbringing on a Tennessee dairy farm, through her record-setting run at Tennessee where she turned the Lady Vols into one of the iconic programs in women’s basketball. The film also tells the story of Summitt’s public battle with Alzheimer’s.
Summitt was the coach at Tennessee from 1974 through 2012; she captured 1,098 victories. She still ranks third all-time in career wins, having since been surpassed by Stanford’s Tara VanDerveer and UConn’s Geno Auriemma. Summitt won eight national championships and 16 SEC Tournaments. She was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2000 and awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012. She died in 2016 at the age of 64.
In 1984, Summitt coached the women’s national team to its first Olympic gold medal in Los Angeles. In 2028, the Summer Games will return there and one of her former players, Kara Lawson, will aim to coach the Americans to their 11th gold.
The film is a collaboration between Trilogy Films, Tribeca Studios and Roberts’ company, Rock’n Robin Productions, for ABC News Studios.