Dean Smith passes away and Basketball loses
a coach, mentor, activist
On the night of Saturday February 7, 2015
the basketball world, both professional and amateur, lost a great man and
mentor to hundreds and possibly thousands of basketball players.
Dean Smith, the former coach of the University of North Carolina from 1961 until his retirement in 1997, passed away at the age of 83 just 3 weeks away from his 84th birthday.
Dean Smith, the former coach of the University of North Carolina from 1961 until his retirement in 1997, passed away at the age of 83 just 3 weeks away from his 84th birthday.
February 28, 1931 the Smith family of
Emporia, Kansas, both local school teachers, welcomed Dean to the world. Smith’s father, Alfred, was also the coach of
the local highschool’s basketball.
Under Alfred the Emporia High Spartans would win the 1934 Kansas state title. That team had a young man named Paul Terry on its squad. Terry was a black teen in the 10th grade who loved the game of basketball and was encouraged by Alfred Smith to try out for varsity.
When the Emporia team qualified for the tournament a letter was sent to Dean’s dad telling him to leave Paul at home or face removal from the tournament. Trivia experts will cite the 1934 tournament and Emporia’s team as being the first to have a black play in the state finals.
Dean Smith denied that story in his book “A Coach’s Life” saying that despite Paul being on the roster he didn’t play in the tournament. Dean also mentioned that his father ignored many other threats and would often drive for miles after games to find a restaurant that would allow Paul to dine with the entire team. Obviously this lack of care to skin colour would influence Dean in his later years.
Under Alfred the Emporia High Spartans would win the 1934 Kansas state title. That team had a young man named Paul Terry on its squad. Terry was a black teen in the 10th grade who loved the game of basketball and was encouraged by Alfred Smith to try out for varsity.
When the Emporia team qualified for the tournament a letter was sent to Dean’s dad telling him to leave Paul at home or face removal from the tournament. Trivia experts will cite the 1934 tournament and Emporia’s team as being the first to have a black play in the state finals.
Dean Smith denied that story in his book “A Coach’s Life” saying that despite Paul being on the roster he didn’t play in the tournament. Dean also mentioned that his father ignored many other threats and would often drive for miles after games to find a restaurant that would allow Paul to dine with the entire team. Obviously this lack of care to skin colour would influence Dean in his later years.
With an early exposure the basketball it was of little shock that Dean would be a four-time letterman for Topeka High School and named all-state when he was a senior. Smith would also play quarterback and catcher for the school’s football and baseball team, respectively. His father would often sit with him after football and basketball games drawing up plays that Dean had partaking in and would show him, using the typical X’s and O’s, why things worked and why certain plays didn’t. The coaching mentality was bred into him pretty early.
Upon graduation Smith would attend the University of Kansas on a math scholarship while playing on the same three sports he played in highschool. While playing for the Kansas Jayhawks’ basketball squad Smith would be exposed to two national finals, one in 1952 that Kansas won and the next year in 1953 where the team lost in the finals.
More importantly Smith would develop a mentorship with head coach Phog Allen. Allen played at Kansas when it was coached by the Supreme Creator of the sport – Dr. James Naismith. Smith would continue his mentorship as an assistant coach to Allen for the 1953-54 season. In a world where people like to talk of degrees of separation Dean Smith was the closest link many had in basketball to its creator Dr. James Naismith.
Due to Smith’s enrollment, at the behest of
the Kansas Athletic Department, in the campus’ Air Force
ROTC he was shipped to Germany for the required service as part of his ROTC’s conditions. The Korean War had broken out in 1950 and the universities had all learnt that ROTC enrollment would render their athletes to a non-draft status.
While in the Air Force’s care in Germany there was a basketball clinic put on by Kentucky coach Adolph Rupp, Boston Celtic coach Red Auerbach and Celtic’s legendary point guard Bob Cousy. The base General tasked Smith with finding suitable military members to take part in the clinic.
ROTC he was shipped to Germany for the required service as part of his ROTC’s conditions. The Korean War had broken out in 1950 and the universities had all learnt that ROTC enrollment would render their athletes to a non-draft status.
While in the Air Force’s care in Germany there was a basketball clinic put on by Kentucky coach Adolph Rupp, Boston Celtic coach Red Auerbach and Celtic’s legendary point guard Bob Cousy. The base General tasked Smith with finding suitable military members to take part in the clinic.
Rupp would later tell a story from that
trip during a banquet at North Carolina.
In the story, which Dean confirmed in his book, Rupp mentioned that
while eating with General Garland and a base colonel a young Smith came into
the Officer’s club in his sweats to thank him for the opportunity to arrange
the players for the clinic and the chance to play one on one with Bob
Cousy. Garland, rather impressed with
Smith it seems, told the colonel to move over so Smith could sit down and eat
with Rupp. Rupp would often end that
story with “I wonder about the Air Force’s priorities”.
Dean Smith would return from Germany in
1955 and take a job as an assistant coach with Air Force Academy. During his tenure at the Air Force Dean would
be encouraged by head coach Bob Spears to take part in as many clinics and
post-match brain picking sessions with veteran coaches that he could. During the 1957 Final Four one of those
veteran coaches would be none other than Frank McGuire who was the head coach
at North Carolina. McGuire would
eventually convince Spears to have Dean join his staff for the start of the
1958 season.
In 1961 McGuire would be forced to resign
because of a major recruiting scandal that would result in a NCAA mandated
probation.
In Smith’s first season in charge of the program the Athletic Director told him not to worry about wins and losses but just make sure the program is clean and could make the university proud.
Due to the probation North Carolina’s schedule was reduced from 25 games to 17 and only 2 scholarships could be used on students that were outside of the region. In that first season, which would be Dean’s only losing season, the Tarheels would go 8-9 and 7-7 in conference play. That season the Tarheels would tie for 4th in the Atlantic Coast Conference. By the 1964-65 season Dean Smith would lead the Tarheels to a tie for 2nd. After this season Dean Smith’s team never finished less than 3rd in the ACC.
In Smith’s first season in charge of the program the Athletic Director told him not to worry about wins and losses but just make sure the program is clean and could make the university proud.
Due to the probation North Carolina’s schedule was reduced from 25 games to 17 and only 2 scholarships could be used on students that were outside of the region. In that first season, which would be Dean’s only losing season, the Tarheels would go 8-9 and 7-7 in conference play. That season the Tarheels would tie for 4th in the Atlantic Coast Conference. By the 1964-65 season Dean Smith would lead the Tarheels to a tie for 2nd. After this season Dean Smith’s team never finished less than 3rd in the ACC.
Smith would create many innovations in the
game. The ‘tired signal’ in which a
player would use a hand signal, in Dean’s case it was a raised fist, to notify
the coach that he was tired and needed to be substituted. From a lesson learnt from his father, who
would tell him that the passer deserves more credit, Dean would also institute
a rule where the person scoring a basket would point to the player who made the
pass to set up the shot as a sign of thank you.
Certain defensive sets such as the point zone, double-team on the screen and roll and the run and jump. Smith’s most influential implementation would be the four-corner offense. Due to the effectiveness of the four-corner’s being used to ride out the game clock when leading the NCAA decided to institute a 45 second shot clock in the 1985 season.
Certain defensive sets such as the point zone, double-team on the screen and roll and the run and jump. Smith’s most influential implementation would be the four-corner offense. Due to the effectiveness of the four-corner’s being used to ride out the game clock when leading the NCAA decided to institute a 45 second shot clock in the 1985 season.
However his off-court innovations don’t get enough press in his actions toward social equality. In 1964 Smith would assist a local pastor and black theology student in their push to integrate The Pines, a local restaurant in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. In 1965 Smith would help Howard Lee, a black graduate from the school, in his attempt to purchase a home in a local all-white neighbourhood.
In 1966, ironically the same year that Texas Western won the NCAA’s with an all-black starting lineup, Dean Smith would break the segregation barrier and offer Charlie Scott a scholarship making him the first black scholarship athlete on the Tarheels’ basketball team. Players from North Carolina look at Dean as more than a coach.
Michael Jordan,
certainly the most famous Tarheel in history, called Smith the most influential adult in
his life that wasn’t one of his parents.
Jordan was quoted in a statement as saying:
"Other than my parents, no one had a
bigger influence on my life than Coach Smith. He was more than a coach -- he
was my mentor, my teacher, my second father. Coach was always there for me
whenever I needed him and I loved him for it. In teaching me the game of
basketball, he taught me about life. My heart goes out to Linnea and their kids.
We've lost a great man who had an incredible impact on his players, his staff
and the entire UNC family."
Dean Smith’s career accomplishments were as follows:
·
879 wins placing him 4th
of all time (he was the leader at retirement)
·
77.6% winning percentage making
him 9th of all time
·
1,133 games coached (4th
of all-time)
·
Most Division 1 20-win seasons
with 27 consecutive 20+ win seasons; 30 such seasons in total
·
22 seasons with at least 25
wins
·
35 consecutive seasons with a
50% or better season
·
2 national titles as a coach
·
11 Final Four appearances (2nd
of all time)
·
17 regular season ACC titles,
with 33 straight years being top three and 20 years top two
·
13 ACC tournament titles
·
27 NCAA tournament appearances,
including 23 straight appearances
·
26 players recruited that
became All-Americans
·
5 players who were Rookie of
the Year in either the NBA or ABA
·
25 players who were 1st
Round draft picks
·
1976 Olympic gold
·
One of four coaches to have
coached a team to an Olympic gold medal, a NIT championship and a NCAA
championship (Adolph Rupp, Pete Newell and Bob Knight being the other two)
·
One of three people to have won
a NCAA title as a coach and player at the time of his retirement
·
4 time National Coach of the
Year
·
8 time ACC Coach of the Year
·
1983 induction to Basketball
Hall of Fame
·
1997 Sports Illustrated’s
Sportsman of the Year
·
1998 Arthur Ashe Courage Award
·
2006 inducted to National
Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame as part of its inaugural class
·
2007 FIBA Hall of Fame
The world of basketball lost a great mentor
and coach this weekend but one who’s legacy is living on through the success of
the players he coached and mentored.
