Knoxville, Tenn. — Pat Summitt's friends, relatives, rivals, fans and former players gathered Thursday to honor the former Tennessee women's basketball coach in the arena where she orchestrated some of her greatest victories.

The ceremony at Thompson-Boling Arena gave the public a chance to pay tribute to Summitt, who won eight national titles and 1,098 games in her 38-year tenure. A private funeral was held in Clarksville on June 30, two days after Summitt died at the age of 64.

"I think tonight's going to touch on a lot of emotions," said Michelle Brooke-Marciniak, a guard on Tennessee's 1996 national championship team and a member of the Pat Summitt Foundation's advisory board. "''I think it's going to be sad, touching and emotional. It's going to be happy and truly a remembrance, a ceremony of who was this woman (who was) such a force in everyone's life."

Scheduled speakers include recently retired quarterback Peyton Manning, "Good Morning America" anchor Robin Roberts, WNBA star Tamika Catchings, current Tennessee coach Holly Warlick and former Lady Volunteers assistant Mickie DeMoss as well as Summitt's son, Tyler Summitt.

The event attracted Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam and a star-studded list of women's basketball coaches that included Connecticut's Geno Auriemma, who served as Summitt's greatest rival. Auriemma wasn't one of the scheduled speakers.

The Thompson-Boling Arena court on Tennessee's campus was named "The Summitt" in March 2005 during a surprise ceremony after a 75-54 NCAA Tournament triumph over Purdue that gave Summitt her 880th victory, allowing her to pass Dean Smith for the most career wins of any men's or women's college basketball coach. Summitt remains the Division I men's or women's leader in that category.

"It's the right place to celebrate Pat — the place (where) she gave all of us so much," former Tennessee women's athletic director Joan Cronan said. "To me, this celebration is really a gift to the fans from Pat. They need an opportunity to say thank you and to celebrate her life."

The stage for Thursday's event included each of the Lady Vols' eight national championship trophies plus a stool and whistle that Summitt used during her coaching career.

Fans withstood an afternoon downpour as they waited to enter the arena. The distance traveled by many of them underscored the way Summitt built Lady Vols basketball into a national brand.

Patti Stephen drove more than 700 miles from Teaneck, New Jersey, to pay her final respects. She packed a lunch in her car and arrived on campus more than seven hours before the start of the ceremony to make sure she got a seat in the arena.

"I've been a Lady Vol fan for a long time, and it felt like I just needed to be here," said Stephen, who wore a T-shirt, hat and a set of bracelets bearing the message "We Back Pat." ''It wouldn't be the same on TV. ...The second they said the service was going to be held, I told my boss I was taking vacation and heading down."

Patty Ivan of Chesapeake Beach, Maryland, drove over 500 miles to the ceremony. Ivan said she'd been following Summitt since the 1970s and called the former Lady Vols coach her "role model."

"I'm hoping people are happy and telling good stories about Pat and not being somber — celebrating her life," Ivan said.

Summitt took over Tennessee's program in 1974 and remained in place until stepping down in 2012, one year after announcing she had early-onset dementia, Alzheimer's type.

Cronan expects Thursday's ceremony to include plenty of stories about Summitt's life on and off the court. Cronan also expected much attention to be given to the work Summitt did the last five years in launching the Pat Summitt Foundation to fight Alzheimer's disease.

"Pat's goal since she's been diagnosed with this disease was to be sure that people realized that she not only be remembered for winning basketball games but making a difference in this disease," Cronan said.

Tributes to Summitt were evident around Tennessee's campus.

In the two weeks since her death, fans have paid tribute to the former Lady Volunteers coach by leaving flowers, cards, basketballs and other gifts at the foot of a bronze statue of Summitt, which is located in across the street from Thompson-Boling Arena. Fans continued bringing flowers to that area and taking pictures of the statue Thursday.

At one of the school's most notable campus landmarks — a rock where people often paint various messages — Tennessee student Payton Miller painted a picture of Summitt's face with a basketball and a Tennessee logo serving as a backdrop.

The flowers that were used for Summitt's memorial service will be repurposed into 300 bouquets and given to Alzheimer's patients in the east Tennessee area as part of a partnership between Random Acts of Flowers and Alzheimer's Tennessee. School officials said Tennessee students and alumni would assist in making those deliveries Friday.