Robin Roberts, Dawn Porter want people to know about Pat Summitt’s caring nature

The story of legendary Tennessee Lady Vols coach Pat Summitt is told in Breaking Glass: The Pat Summitt Story, now streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney+. The documentary follows her journey through her coaching career and features many of the people she impacted. Director Dawn Porter says it also highlights an often overlooked aspect of her legacy.

“Something I think people don’t talk about enough is Pat invited a number of Black women into the University of Tennessee to play for her when that wasn’t that common,” she says. “She didn’t make a big deal of it. … She invited the best players.”

One of those players was WNBA star Candace Parker, who still carries lessons she learned under Pat’s leadership.

“I talked with Candace Parker, who played for Pat, and she said that they were required as Lady Vols to sit in the front row in the classroom. Candace says to this day, when she’s somewhere, she sits in the front row,” says executive producer Robin Roberts. “There were many life skills … that had nothing to do with basketball, but still stays with all these women … decades later.”

With so many meaningful moments embedded in the documentary, Robin hopes viewers walk away understanding how deeply Pat cared.

“I hope people will realize how much she truly cared, not just about the Tennessee Lady Vols, not just about women’s basketball, but how much she truly, truly cared and how she saw you,” she says. “When you were in front of Pat Summitt, you thought you were the only person on earth. She made you feel important. She made you feel seen and heard.”

Dawn adds, “I hope people understand that she was a leader through and through, and she just treated everybody the same. … She was not a person who was only caring about the superstars. She cared about everybody.” 

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