On the evening of February 7, 2015 legendary former North Carolina Tar Heels basketball head coach Dean Smith passed away peacefully at his home in Chapel Hill. Smith coached from 1961 to 1997 and retired with 879 victories, which was the NCAA Division I men’s basketball record at that time.
Smith has the 9th highest winning percentage of any men’s college basketball coach (77.6%) and during his tenure as head coach, North Carolina won two national championships and appeared in 11 Final Fours. Here are 11 things you probably didn’t know about Dean Smith and his legacy.
Photo source: Instagram
1. Dean E. Smith Center
We’ve all heard of the Dean E. Smith Center otherwise referred to as the “Dean Dome”. But here’s what you didn’t know. When boosters wanted to name the 21,000-seat arena after him in 1983, Smith protested, insisting they could only use his name if it was the only way that people could fully express their appreciation for the outstanding play of his basketball teams.
2. 879 Wins Instead of 875
When Smith was nearing Adolph Rupp’s all-time record of 876 wins, he told those close to him that he might quit coaching basketball one game short of the record. He claimed that society had an unhealthy obsession of who’s No. 1. But after insistence from everyone around him, Smith decided to stay on and passed Rupp on his way to 879 career victories, the most ever by a collegiate coach at that time.
3. No Beards Policy
In an interview with SI in 1997, James Worthy, one of Smith’s former players, talked about how the coach did not allow his team to wear beards.
“He didn’t allow players to wear beards,” said Worthy. “I had a skin problem and couldn’t shave close, and I complained so much that he said, ‘O.K., if you get a doctor’s note, I’ll let you wear one.’ But if you look at the Sports Illustrated cover in 1981, with Jimmy Black, myself, Matt Doherty, Sam Perkins and Coach Smith, I had to shave for that. He said, ‘Can you shave just this once?’ So I shaved.”
4. Coaching Was His Destiny
From 1949 to 1953, Smith attended Kansas on an academic scholarship. Smith was a member of the Jayhawks basketball team but played very little. However, the inventor of basketball, James Naismith, taught legendary Jayhawks coach Phog Allen, who taught Smith, who would in turn teach Michael Jordan. Now that’s a true coaching legacy.
5. Integration
When Smith came to Carolina in the early 60’s, his influence in Chapel Hill extended well beyond the basketball arena. In 1964, Smith joined a local pastor and a black North Carolina theology student to integrate The Pines, a Chapel Hill restaurant. He also integrated the Tar Heels basketball team by recruiting Charlie Scott as the university’s first black scholarship athlete.
6. Hung in Effigy
During Smith’s fourth season as the Tar Heels coach in January 1965, the team returned home after being trounced by Wake Forest. As the bus arrived, the team saw that students hung Smith in effigy. Billy Cunningham, a center on the team, quickly jumped off the bus and angrily tore down the likeness of Smith from the tree. After that incident, the team went on to win nine of its next 11 games that season.
7. Going to Church Was a Rule
During his early years at UNC, Smith required that his players attend church on Sunday. Here is how it was described by forward Larry Miller who played for Smith from 1965-1968.
“One of his rules was that we had to go to church on Sunday and bring back a brochure to prove we’d gone,” said Miller. “After I didn’t go a couple of weeks Coach Smith called me into his office. At the time I had objections to what I thought was hypocrisy in the church. So I told him that if I were at home, my parents wouldn’t make me go–that I could have had someone grab a brochure for me, but that wouldn’t have been right. I asked him to respect my beliefs. And he did.”
8. Presidential Medal of Freedom
On Nov. 20, 2013, President Obama awarded Smith with The Presidential Medal of Freedom – the highest civilian award of the United States. But due to health reasons, Smith did not attend the ceremony in Washington. He was represented by his wife, Dr. Linnea Smith, his children, long-time coaching assistant Bill Guthridge and current UNC coach Roy Williams.
9. Politics
While coaching, Smith was recruited by some in the Democratic Party to run for the U.S. Senate against incumbent Jesse Helms. Smith declined. But after his retirement, he spoke out on issues such as the war in Iraq, the death penalty and gay rights. Smith was a staunch Democrat and he officially endorsed Senator Barack Obama’s candidacy for President of the United States back in 2008.
10. Trend-Setting Coach
Smith has been credited with implementing many popular basketball techniques such as the “tired signal” in which a player uses his hand or fist to indicate that he is in need of a rest. He is also credited with instructing his players to huddle at the free throw line before a foul shot as well as being the first coach to institute numerous defensive sets in a single game.
Smith is also credited with encouraging players who just scored a basket to acknowledge and point at the teammate who passed him the ball. But Smith will be most remembered for implementing the “four-corners” offense which was his strategy of stalling the game if his team had a lead late in the second half or overtime. His team was so effective at this strategy that the NCAA decided to implement the shot clock in 1985 to eliminate this tactic completely.
11. Best-Selling Book
Dean Smith was the author of Basketball: Multiple Offense and Defense, which is the best-selling technical basketball book in history.