Dean Smith
Dean Edwards Smith (born
February 28,
1931) is a former
basketball player and coach. He was the
head coach of the men's
basketball team at the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill from 1961 to 1997.
He has been recognized as one of the greatest coaches in American sports history. He currently holds the record for most victories by an
NCAA Division I men's basketball coach, finishing his career with 879 wins against 254 losses (a .776 winning percentage).
[NCAA Coaching Stats]His teams won two national titles and appeared in 11
Final Fours.
[Hall of Fame website]Smith was born in
Emporia, Kansas. His parents were public school teachers, and he was a four-year letter winner playing basketball at
Topeka High School, including being named all-state as a senior.
He attended the
University of Kansas on an academic scholarship and played varsity basketball, varsity baseball, and freshman football. He was a member of the Kansas teams that won the national championship in
1952 and finished second in
1953. His coach at Kansas was the legendary
Forrest "Phog" Allen, who in turn was coached in college basketball by its inventor,
James Naismith. After graduation, Smith was an assistant coach at Kansas in the 1953-54 season.
He then served a stint in the
United States Air Force in Germany, then worked at the
United States Air Force Academy as head coach of its baseball and golf teams. In
1958, North Carolina coach
Frank McGuire asked Smith to join his staff as an assistant coach. Smith served under McGuire for three years until 1961, when McGuire resigned to become head coach of the NBA's
Philadelphia Warriors. University chancellor
William Aycock asked Smith, then 30 years old, to become the new head coach.
Smith's first years as head coach were difficult. In his first season as head coach, the ACC had cancelled the
Dixie Classic (Basketball Tournament), an annual basketball tournament in North Carolina, because of a national point shaving scandal that included four N.C. State players (Don Gallagher, Stan Niewierowski, Anton Muehlbauer and Terry Litchfield) and one UNC player (Lou Brown).
[[1]] As a result of the scandal, both N.C. State and UNC de-emphasized basketball by cutting their regular-season schedules. In Smith's first season from 1961-62, UNC played only 17 games and went 8-9.
[Article on first five years at Carolina] As it turned out, this would be the only losing season he would ever suffer. In 1965, he was famously burned in effigy on the university campus after a disappointing loss to
Wake Forest. But Smith quickly turned the program into a consistent success. His first major successes came in the late 1960s, when his teams won three consecutive regular-season and tournament championships in the
Atlantic Coast Conference, and went to three straight
Final Fours.
Among the accomplishments of Smith's teams:
* Two national championships (1982, 1993)
* 11 Final Fours (second all-time to
John Wooden's 12)
* 22 seasons with at least 25 wins
* 30 seasons with at least 20 wins, including 27 consecutive
* 17 regular-season ACC titles, plus 33 straight years finishing in the conference's top three and 20 years in the top two
* 13 ACC tournament titles
* 27 NCAA tournament appearances, including 23 consecutive
* 96% graduation rate among players
His players were often successful in the
NBA. Five of Smith's players have been Rookie of the Year in either the NBA or ABA. Among Smith's most successful players in the NBA are
Michael Jordan,
Larry Brown,
James Worthy,
Sam Perkins,
Phil Ford,
Bob McAdoo,
Billy Cunningham,
Kenny Smith,
Walter Davis,
Jerry Stackhouse,
Antawn Jamison,
Vince Carter and
Rasheed Wallace.
In 1976, Smith coached the United States team to a
gold medal at the
Summer Olympics in
Montreal. Smith was selected after the United States' controversial second-place finish at the
1972 games.
It took Smith seven trips to the Final Four before winning his first national title, and then it took him nine more years to return (and two more to get another title).
Smith-coached teams varied in style, depending on the players Smith had available. But they generally featured a fast-break style, a half-court offense that emphasized the passing game, and an aggressive trapping defense that produced turnovers and easy baskets.
His teams always shot the ball well. From 1970 until his retirement, North Carolina shot over 50 percent from the floor all but four years – and led the ACC in field-goal percentage even in those four.
Smith is credited with creating or popularizing a number of basketball techniques:
* The "tired signal," in which a player would use a hand signal (originally a raised fist) to indicate that he needed to come out for a rest.
[Sportsman of the Year article on innovations] [[http://espn.go.com/page2/s/list/topcoaches/010518.html ESPN article on top college basketball coaches]* The practice of huddling at the free throw line before a foul shot.
[Sportsman of the Year article on innovations] [[http://espn.go.com/page2/s/list/topcoaches/010518.html ESPN article on top college basketball coaches]* Starting all his team's seniors on the last home game of the season ("Senior Day") as a way of honoring the contributions of the subs as well as the stars.
[[2]] In one season when the team included six seniors, he opted to put all six on the floor at the beginning of the game – drawing a
technical foul – rather than leave one of them out.
[[3]]* Encouraging players who scored a basket to point a finger at the teammate who passed them the ball, in honor of the passer's selflessness.
[Sportsman of the Year article on innovations] [[http://espn.go.com/page2/s/list/topcoaches/010518.html ESPN article on top college basketball coaches] * Instituting a variety of defensive sets in one game and having the point guard call out the defense.
[Sportsman of the Year article on innovations] [[http://www.guidetocoachingbasketball.com/altrntng.htm]* A number of defensive sets, including the point zone, the run-and-jump, and double-teaming the screen-and-roll.
[[[http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/classic/bio/news/story?page=Smith_Dean]He is the author of
Basketball: Multiple Offenses and Defense, which is the best-selling technical basketball book in history.
[http://www.hoophall.com/halloffamers/SmithDean.htm] One of his most famous strategies was the
four corners offense, a strategy for stalling with a lead near the end of the game. The introduction of a
shot clock in
1985, which he supported, made that offense mostly obsolete. Although fellow
Kansas alum
John McClendon invented the four corners, Smith is better known for utilizing it in games.
[[http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/features/1997/sportsman/fatherof.html Sportsman of the Year article on innovations]Smith received a number of personal honors during his coaching career. He was named the National Coach of the Year four times (1977, 1979, 1982, 1993) and ACC Coach of the Year eight times (1967, 1968, 1969, 1971, 1976, 1977, 1979, 1988, 1993).
Smith was inducted into the
Basketball Hall of Fame on
May 2,
1983, two years after being enshrined in the North Carolina Hall of Fame.
Smith was the first recipient of the Mentor Award for Lifetime Achievement, given by the University of North Carolina Committee on Teaching Awards for "a broader range of teaching beyond the classroom." He has also been awarded honorary doctorates by
Eastern University and
Catawba College.
The basketball arena at UNC, the
Dean Smith Center, was named for Smith. It is also widely referred to as the "Dean Dome".
In 1997, upon his retirement, Smith was named
Sportsman of the Year by the magazine
Sports Illustrated. ESPN named Smith one of the five all-time greatest American coaches of any sport.
Smith announced his retirement on
October 8, 1997. He had said that if he ever felt he couldn't give his team the same enthusiasm he'd given it for years, he'd retire.
[CNNSI archive movie on news coverage of retirement ] Bill Guthridge, his assistant for 30 years, succeeded him as head coach.
Even in retirement, some believe that Smith still has a large influence on the current North Carolina basketball program. For example, in 2003 some newspapers reported that Smith was influential in pursuading
Roy Williams to replace a struggling
Matt Doherty as head coach. [
4] Williams had previously declined the head coaching position three years earlier when
Bill Guthridge retired.
Smith was one of the most prominent liberals in a traditionally conservative state. In 1964, Smith joined a local pastor and a black UNC theology student to integrate The Pines, a Chapel Hill restaurant. He also played a large part in desegregating the city of
Chapel Hill when he integrated the Tar Heels basketball team by recruiting
Charlie Scott as the university's first black scholarship athlete.
[http://www.nba.com/nuggets/history/ACC_50th_Anniversary_Team.html]He opposed the Vietnam War and, in the early 1980s, famously recorded radio spots to promote a freeze on nuclear weapons. He has been a prominent opponent of the death penalty. In 1998, he appeared at a clemency hearing for a death-row inmate and pointed at then-Governor
Jim Hunt: "You're a murderer. And I'm a murderer. The death penalty makes us all murderers." As head coach, he periodically held UNC basketball practices in North Carolina prisons.
[http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/si_online/news/2003/03/18/life_of_reilly_0317/]While coach, he was recruited by some in the
Democratic Party to run for the
United States Senate against incumbent
Jesse Helms. He declined. But in retirement, he has continued to speak out on issues such as the
war in Iraq and
gay rights.
[http://www.pfadp.org/news/news/02-09-03.htm]Although a staunch Democrat, Smith did support one of his former players,
Republican Richard Vinroot, for
governor of North Carolina in
2000.
[http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0807912/bio]One hallmark of Smith's tenure as coach was the concept of the "Carolina Family," the idea that anyone associated with the program was entitled to the support of others. Many of his former players and assistant coaches have followed Smith into the coaching profession.
*
Roy Williams, former KU coach and current UNC coach
*
Bill Guthridge, Smith's successor at UNC
*
Matt Doherty, a former Smith player and former UNC coach who now coaches at
Southern Methodist University*
George Karl, a point guard under Smith, currently coach of the
Denver Nuggets*
Larry Brown, a former Smith player, former coach of the
New York Knicks, winner of championships in both the NBA (
Detroit Pistons) and college (
Kansas)
*
Eddie Fogler, former National Coach of the Year at
Vanderbilt*
Billy Cunningham, coach of the 1983 NBA champion
Philadelphia 76ers*
Jeff Lebo, coach at
Auburn*
Buzz Peterson, coach at
Coastal Carolina*
Mitch Kupchak, general manager of the
Los Angeles Lakers*
Tony Shaver, reserve point guard under Smith, now head coach at
William & Mary*
Terry Truax, former Smith assistant and former head coach at
Towson University*
Randy Wiel, former Smith player and former head coach at
Middle Tennessee and the
University of North Carolina at AshevilleIn 1991, Smith was ejected from a Final Four game after receiving two technical fouls
[http://www.dukebasketballreport.com/main/3725.html][Washington Post Article from March 31, 1991, Kansas Leaves 'Heels Dejected, Smith Ejected by Steve Berkowitz]; no other head coach has ever been ejected from a Final Four game.
[
5][
6]
*
Basketball Hall of Fame*
1997 Sportsman of the Year*
NCAA coaching stats*
ESPN Classic Bio of Dean Smith
