Jun. 16, 2026
Maria M. Cornelius, the senior writer/editor for MoxCar Marketing + Communications, has released a 10th anniversary edition through the University of Tennessee Press of her account of the late Pat Summitt’s final season as head coach of the Lady Vols basketball team.
Originally published in the fall of 2016 just three months after the death of the iconic coach, “The Final Season: The Perseverance of Pat Summitt” tells the story of Summitt’s final season in 2011-12 through interviews with the coaches, players and staff. Cornelius witnessed the season and traveled coast-to-coast to cover the team, including games against Rutgers in Piscataway, New Jersey, and Stanford in Palo Alto, California.
The 10th anniversary edition, which was officially released June 16, is a reprint of the book with a new foreword by Candace Parker, who will be inducted June 27 into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in Knoxville. Summitt was in the inaugural induction class in 1999.
“While we know Maria as our senior editor and writer who has been at our company for nearly 13 years, we also know her history of covering Lady Vols basketball and have always been supportive of her endeavors,” MoxCar Marketing + Communications CEO and partner Lauren Miller said. “Pat Summitt was not only the greatest women’s basketball coach – and arguably the greatest basketball coach period; she also was a champion for women. We are grateful to have Maria as part of our team and happy to help celebrate and promote her latest work as an author.”
The book also includes two new chapters, “The Goodbye,” which tells stories from those closest to Summitt about how they told her goodbye in her final days, and “The Funeral,” which outlines the final tribute and includes stories from the people, including her son, Tyler Summitt, who attended the service at the family’s church in Clarksville, Tennessee. She is buried in the nearby cemetery at Mount Carmel United Methodist Church.
In addition, the book features a reprint of Cornelius’ coverage of Summitt’s celebration of life in Knoxville in July 2016 that previously had only been published online. Finally, it includes a new afterword by Cornelius in tribute to her mother, who died April 24, 2024, from Alzheimer’s disease. The book can be ordered online at utpress.org/9798895273197/the-final-season and is in local bookstores.
Summitt, who won 1,098 games and eight national championships, helped establish the Lady Vols as the top women’s athletics program in the country. She was diagnosed with early onset dementia in 2011 a few months before the 2011-12 season started and died on June 28, 2016, at the age of 64.
“While we were all aware of Pat’s condition, her death came as a surprise because the decline came very quickly over a few weeks,” Cornelius said. “The original book was weeks away from going to print and was updated to reflect her passing, but it was far too soon to ask those mourning her death to speak about it in detail during their overwhelming grief. This anniversary edition is a way to honor her memory, help maintain her legacy and reflect after 10 years how much Summitt meant to everyone who crossed her path.”
Cornelius gathered so much new content from nearly 30 interviews, that UT Press decided to publish a second book as well titled “The Legacy of Pat Summitt,” which will be released in November 2026 and is a collection of stories from former players and colleagues across her coaching career. The book can be preordered at utpress.org/9798895274309/the-legacy-of-pat-summitt.
