Margaret Hutson, who blazed coaching trail for Pat Summitt, dies at 78

Joy Scruggs knows what Tennessee women's basketball was like before Pat Summitt.

Scruggs played for Summitt's predecessor, Margaret Hutson, and said on Monday the program was in capable hands under her guidance.

"I don't think you'd think about Margaret as being intense," Scruggs said. "But she was challenging to please."

Hutson died last Wednesday after battling Alzheimer's disease, the same illness that claimed Summitt on June 28 last year. She was 78.

"What are the odds?" said Scruggs, who played for both coaches.

Under Hutson, who began teaching in UT's Physical Education department in 1970, Tennessee was 60-19 in four seasons (1971-74), including 25-2 in her final season. In that era, play began in January.

Hutson resigned from coaching in 1974 to pursue her doctorate degree. Summitt, who had been hired to be a graduate assistant, took over as head coach.

"(Hutson) was meticulous about how it had to be done," Scruggs said. "Close was not good enough."

In that sense, she was similar to Summitt. Hutson also favored an aggressive style of play that foreshadowed the program's future.

"We pressed people unmercifully," Scruggs said.

Scruggs recalled one such game, when an opposing player, while being trapped by multiple UT defenders, started a conversation and asked, "Why are you still pressing us?" 

The biggest difference between the two coaches, Scruggs said, was their basketball backgrounds.

"Pat's basketball knowledge, particularly for someone as young as she was, was enormous," Scruggs said. "Margaret made no secret that she didn't have a lot of basketball knowledge. But she was willing to work at it."

Scruggs and Hutson reunited later as faculty in the Health and Physical Education department at Emory & Henry College in Emory, Va. Scruggs said that Hutson, when she came to the school, stipulated that she would coach any sport but basketball.

"(Basketball) was so stressful to her," Scruggs said.