Why the Lady Vols Next Coach Must Be a Woman

In an era where equal pay for women is on the forefront of the American mindset, what would it say if Tennessee brought in a male coach and paid him more than either Holly Warlick or Pat Summitt?

Perhaps when Louisville fell to Connecticut yesterday in the NCAA Women’s Basketball Elite Eight you felt as if Jeff Walz, a candidate for the Tennessee Lady Vols’ next head coaching position, would become available.

He shouldn’t. Because unless athletic director Phil Fulmer wants to throw away the entire legacy of what the Lady Vols stand for, he has to hire a woman to be the next head coach of the Lady Vols.

Spare us the cliche that “the job should go to the best candidate.” Agreed.

And the best candidate will be a woman. Here’s why.

The Lady Vols became a national power because they were ahead of the curve on Title IX. When she became the head coach at Tennessee in 1974, Pat Head was paid less than $10,000 annually, offices were in the bowels of the Stokley Athletic Center, and the uniforms were paid by donut sales.

The Tennessee Secondary Scholastic Athletic Association still insisted female basketball be played under six-on-six rules, the gender’s archaic basketball equivalent to a jump ball after every basket.

Head, who became Pat Summitt upon her 1980 marriage, insisted upon the gender equality male sports had at Tennessee. She actively fought for females to play under the same…