As a student at Duke University, I despised Dean Smith. After all, he was the head coach of our most heated basketball rival, and - worst of all - he had a national championship ring at a time when our men's basketball team was still in search of its first! Of course we all knew he was an outstanding coach - but it wasn't until I moved on from college, became less fierce about basketball rivalries, and learned more about Coach Smith's history that I came to deeply admire and respect him.
He was a great and influential coach - retiring with two championships and more wins than any coach in history (a record later broken by Bobby Knight, then Mike Krzyzewski), developing an effective Four Corners offense that ultimately led the NCAA to institute the shot clock, and promoting team play in a sport that often emphasized the individual ... as reflected in the comment of Dean that he was the only person who could hold Michael Jordan to under 20 points. But more importantly, he used his platform in coaching to promote positive change in society.
Dean Smith passed away at the age of 83 last night - peacefully and surrounded by family. More on his legacy below the fold.
A few of the things beyond his wins and championships that are worth remembering about legendary coach Dean Smith:
He helped integrate ACC basketball, recruiting the first African-American scholarship athlete in University of North Carolina's history, Charles Scott. Tar Heel Trailblazer: Charles Scott.
He also stood up for integration in the Chapel Hill community. As an assistant coach, he took a black theology student to the segregated restaurant where the basketball team ate its team meals. From "Dean Smith's courage" on the UNC website:
“People think of Chapel Hill as this liberal place, but back in the late 1950s and early ‘60s, it was as rigidly segregated as Mississippi,” [Robert] Seymour said.
A few years later, people staged marches and sit-ins to integrate restaurants and movie theaters, but The Pines restaurant on Franklin Street, where the basketball team ate its program meals, was already integrated.
Smith, when he was still an assistant coach, walked to the restaurant with Seymour and a theology student from Binkley, who happened to be black. Then they did something radical for the day: The three stood by the door waiting to go inside.
“The manager looked through the door and saw that we were there,” Seymour said. “There was a look of consternation, but the door finally opened and we were served like everybody else.”
His support for civil rights extended back even to his high school days in Kansas, where he was a star player on Topkea's high school basketball team. The school had two teams - the all-white "Trojans" and the all-black "Ramblers". In 1948, the Trojans placed third in the state tournament. The following year, as a young player, Dean Smith went to the school principal to try to get the teams merged, and kept at it despite being rebuffed. After the 1948-49 season, the basketball team was integrated.
Interestingly, several of the former Ramblers went on to play significant roles including with the groundbreaking Brown v Board of Education case. Richard Lapchick has an interesting article on the story on espn.com.
He spoke out against the death penalty, famously pointing at then North Carolina Governor Jim Hunt and saying "You're a murderer... And I'm a murderer. The death penalty makes us all murderers." (Ex-Coach Takes On A Higher Cause - Chicago Tribune) While he was beloved in a conservative state, his own politics were liberal.
He graduated his players (96% of them!), and kept in touch with them. He was known for hand-writing Christmas cards to all of his past players and assistants every year, and carved out time every week to call and check in with former Tar Heels. There is a reason that he has been so beloved and esteemed by his former players and assistants, and it goes beyond just their time in Chapel Hill.
He was a Recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2013. From the White House:
Dean Smith
Dean Smith was head coach of the University of North Carolina basketball team from 1961 to 1997. In those 36 years, he earned 2 national championships, was named National Coach of the Year multiple times, and retired as the winningest men’s college basketball coach in history. Ninety-six percent of his players graduated from college. Mr. Smith has also remained a dedicated civil rights advocate throughout his career.
Rest in peace, Dean Smith - a great coach, an even better man.
Daily Tar Heel: Dean Smith dies Saturday night at 83
ESPN: Dean Smith dies at age of 83
New York Times: Dean Smith, Longtime University of North Carolina Basketball Coach, Dies at 83