College basketball legend Dean Smith, who led the North Carolina Tar Heels to two national titles and coached the United States to an Olympic gold medal in 1976, died peacefully at his home Saturday night surrounded by his wife and five children. He was 83 years old.
Smith’s name is as synonymous with college basketball as his former team’s and its biggest rival Duke. Smith was the national coach of the year four times, the ACC coach of the year nine times and is a member of the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame, the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame, the Basketball Hall of Fame and was in the inaugural class of the FIBA Hall of Fame and the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame.
Current Tar Heels coach Roy Williams, who was an assistant with Smith for 10 seasons, released a statement on the UNC sports website Sunday.
“It’s such a great loss for North Carolina – our state, the University, of course the Tar Heel basketball program,” Williams said. “But really the entire basketball world. We lost one of our greatest ambassadors for college basketball for the way in which a program should be run. We lost a man of the highest integrity who did so many things off the court to help make the world a better place to live in.”
Smith was an innovator on the court and a champion of civil rights, helping promote desegregation at North Carolina and recruiting Charles Scott, the first African American player to be offered a scholarship at UNC in 1967.
Smith was instrumental in not only building a Tarheels dynasty, but keeping the program afloat after a point-shaving scandal that happened before he was hired. Smith’s first season was his only losing season, finishing 8-9 as the UNC basketball team, “de-emphasized” after the scandal, played only 17 games. Smith’s career would more than make up for that one-game under .500 first season, wrapping up his coaching work with a record of 879-254, the fourth most wins in NCAA Division I college basketball history.
“I’m 64 years old and everything I do with our basketball program and the way I deal with the University is driven by my desire to make Coach Smith proud,” Williams said. “When I came back to Carolina, the driving force was to make him proud and I still think that today.”
Smith’s most famous season was his first NCAA National Championship in 1982, when he coached a team loaded with stars like Sam Perkins, James Worthy and a guy you might have heard of named Michael Jordan to a 32-2 record. The Tarheels beat the Georgetown Hoyas in one of the best college basketball games ever played, securing the national title with a 63-62 win.
Smith’s second national title came 11 years later and is more famous for Michigan’s Chris Webber calling a time-out when his team was out and being sited for a technical foul with just a few seconds left. UNC won that game 77-71, with notable names like George Lynch, Eric Montross and Derrick Phelps.
The game of basketball we watch today would be unrecognizable without Smith. Everything from the “tired signal” players use to ask for a rest, to huddling at the free throw line before a foul shot, to getting his players to point out who gave them an assist on basket.
Smith created the point zone, run-and-jump and double teaming the screen-and-roll defenses and Smith’s use of the four-corners offense was so effective in 1982 it forced the ACC and then the NCAA to institute the shot clock.
From 1970-1997 Smith’s Tarheels had 27 consecutive 20-win seasons. His 30 20-win seasons is still a Division I record. UNC made 11 Final Fours, won 17 ACC titles, 13 ACC tournament titles and made 27 NCAA tournaments.
Smith is one of only three men that coached a national championship team and won one as a player (Smith was a member of Kansas’ 1952 championship team).
Sports Illustrated named Smith one of the five all-time greatest coaches of any sport and on Nov. 20, 2013 President Barack Obama awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedon.
“He (Smith) was the greatest there ever was on the court but far, far better off the court with people,” Williams said. “His concern for people will be the legacy I will remember most.”
