UT Martin guard Sidni Middleton (No. 5) moves down the court during Heritage Classic versus Tennessee on Nov. 9, 2025, in Martin, Tenn., at the Kathleen & Tom Elam Center in Martin, Tenn. | (Pacer Photo / Kaniya Anthony)

On Nov. 9, 2025, the UT Martin Lady Skyhawks and Tennessee Lady Volunteers played in the Pat Summitt Heritage Classic 2025. This marked the first time the event had been held at UT Martin since the event’s debut in 1997. 

UT Martin women’s basketball head coach Kevin McMillan spoke on what former Skyhawks, Bettye Giles and Summitt, mean to UT Martin and the totality of women’s sports.

“I thought it was a great atmosphere, a great chance to honor Pat and Miss Betty. I don’t think that anybody in here realizes what Betty Giles means to women’s sports, women’s basketball. The ties that she has to Tennessee and Martin. She’s the reason that Title IX went in Tennessee. The fact that she was here today at 96 years old was extremely special and you know, I tell her all the time, win or lose, I just want you to be happy with how hard these kids play,” McMillan said. “This is what Miss Betty and Pat would have wanted to see out here in a women’s basketball game between Tennessee and Tennessee Martin. I mean, forget the game, forget the score, just look at the atmosphere, the crowd. That’s what they envisioned when they started doing this stuff.”

Summitt was a former UT Martin player and Tennessee coach who massively impacted women’s basketball and athletics as a whole. She played at UT Martin from 1970 to 1974 and coached at Tennessee from 1974 to 2012. The event served as a tribute to Summitt’s playing and coaching career, and has continued after Summitt died in June 2016.

When Summitt took over as the head coach for the Tennessee women’s basketball team in 1974, the United States had just then started to “respect” women’s sports. On June 23, 1972, the famous Title IX law was passed. Title IX states that no person, no matter the sex, will be excluded from participation or denied benefits from any educational program or activity that receives federal financial assistance. 

Women’s basketball at the time was played in high schools, was only half-court and only included six players—three versus three. Summitt knew something needed to change. Though she was just a year older than some of her players at 22 years old, Summitt took the bull by the horns and did everything she could to help her team, including everything from driving the team’s bus, washing their uniforms, feeding her players, making donations and much more. Summitt set a new standard for women’s basketball with how much she won so early on and how she trained her players in scrimmages against the men’s team. 

In the 1997-98 season, Tennessee visited UT Martin for the first time. Summitt was honored by UT Martin with a street name, Pat Head Summitt Drive, and the court on which UT Martin still plays today, Pat Summitt Court. In that 1997-98 season, Tennessee would finish the regular season 30-0 and the postseason 9-0, which marked the team’s third straight women’s basketball NCAA national championship title. 

Summitt was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease in 2011 and later died in 2016. Her legacy is and will forever be felt by women’s athletics. 

Summitt was not the only woman honored at the Pat Summitt Heritage Classic 2025 though, former UT Martin athletic director Bettye Giles was also honored. Giles is the only woman to ever serve as UT Martin’s athletic director, serving from 1969 to 1995. 

Giles first came to UT Martin in 1952 as a physical education teacher. Having always had an interest in sports, she played on multiple intramural sports teams in grade school and at Austin Peay; at the time, both places had no women’s athletics other than intramural sports. Giles–like Summitt–knew there needed to be a change.

That same year she was hired, Giles instated the first women’s sport at UT Martin: tennis. She was the team’s head coach from 1952 to 1960. Meanwhile, she was also the cheerleading sponsor from 1952 to 1973. She was not done just yet, though. 

In 1969, Giles co-founded the Tennessee College Women’s Sports Federation. Giles would serve as the Federation’s first president. It would later be renamed to the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women–which was then disbanded in 1983 due to a lost antitrust lawsuit. All that said, the impact the TCWSF or AIAW had on Title IX and its development can not be overstated. As a major part of UT Martin’s history, the college’s softball field is named after her, Bettye Giles Softball Field.