Legendary North Carolina head coach Dean Smith passes away at 83

Former North Carolina head coach Dean Smith passed away Feb. 7 at his home in Chapel Hill.
Former North Carolina head coach Dean Smith passed away Feb. 7 at his home in Chapel Hill.

Former North Carolina head coach Dean Smith passed away Saturday night at his home in Chapel Hill. He was 83.

The former Tar Heel head coach from 1961-1997 put together one of the greatest programs and coaching careers in college basketball history during his 36 years at the helm. He led North Carolina to two national titles, 11 Final Fours, coached the gold-medal winning 1976 U.S. Olympic men's basketball team and was enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1983. He was also presented with the Presidential Medal of Honor by U.S. President Barack Obama in 2013.

“Coach Dean Smith passed away peacefully the evening of February 7 at his home in Chapel Hill, and surrounded by his wife and five children,” the Smith family said in a statement. “We are grateful for all the thoughts and prayers, and appreciate the continued respect for our privacy as arrangements are made available to the public. Thank you.”

In his time in Chapel Hill, Smith became synonymous with the usage of the Four Corners offense. The sets would feature a spread offense in which the point guard holds the ball for the majority of the time as the remaining four players stood at the 'four corners' of the frontcourt. This was often used to slow down the game and would result in halftime scores like that of the 7-0 advantage Duke held going into halftime of the 1979 contest between the two rivals.

Smith amassed 879 victories in his time at North Carolina, which—at the time of his retirement in 1997—marked an NCAA Division I men's record. Since then only Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski, Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim and Bob Knight have eclipsed that mark.

But Smith's accomplishments ran deeper than the on-court numbers he put up throughout the years. He was a vocal leader in the fight against segregation, as he recruited and signed Charlie Scott—the first African-American scholarship athlete in Tar Heel history—in 1966.

Smith was also one of a select few college basketball coaches to consistently get the better of Krzyzewski. In their 38 total meetings, Smith held a 24-14 advantage and tallied 59 total victories against the Blue Devils in his 36 years at North Carolina. But as heated as the games were on the court, the friendly rivalry the coaches were able to build helped define the two programs throughout much of the first half of Krzyzewski's career.

Upon hearing of Smith's passing, Krzyzewski released the following statement:

“I am incredibly saddened to hear of the passing of Coach Dean Smith. We have lost a man who cannot be replaced. He was one of a kind and the sport of basketball lost one of its true pillars. Dean possessed one of the greatest basketball minds, and was a magnificent teacher and tactician. While building an elite program at North Carolina, he was clearly ahead of his time in dealing with social issues. However, his greatest gift was his unique ability to teach what it takes to become a good man. That was easy for him to do because he was a great man himself. All of his players benefited greatly from his basketball teachings, but even more from his ability to help mold men of integrity, honor and purpose. Those teachings, specifically, will live forever in those he touched. We offer our deepest sympathies—and gratitude for sharing his incredible life with us for so long—to Linnea, his children and the entire North Carolina family.”—Mike Krzyzewski, Duke University and USA National Team Men’s Basketball Head Coach

Krzyzewski was not the only Blue Devil to voice his feelings on the legendary Tar Heel coach, as Duke alumni took to social media to express their condolences.







ACC Commissioner John Swofford offered a statement on Smith's passing:

“We’ve known for a while this day would come, but it still hits hard. Sometimes we are blessed to be around certain people in our lives. For me, one of those people was Dean Smith. For 21 years I had the privilege of working with him. He personified excellence day-in and day-out, year-in and year-out. The remarkable number of wins is well chronicled, but most importantly those wins came while teaching and living the right values. He won, his players graduated and he played by the rules. He was first and foremost a teacher, and his players were always the most important part of his agenda. His impact on the University of North Carolina, the Atlantic Coast Conference, college basketball and the sport itself, is immeasurable. His leadership off the court in areas such as race relations and education were less chronicled, but just as important. Sometimes the word legend is used with too little thought. In this instance, it almost seems inadequate. He was basketball royalty, and we have lost one of the greats in Dean Smith"

North Carolina alumni, six-time NBA champion and five-time NBA MVP Michael Jordan issued the following statement via the Charlotte Hornets on the passing of his late coach:

“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.”

U.S. President Barack Obama also expressed his condolences later on Sunday afternoon:

"Last night, America lost not just a coaching legend but a gentleman and a citizen. When he retired, Dean Smith had won more games than any other college basketball coach in history. He went to 11 Final Fours, won two national titles, and reared a generation of players who went on to even better things elsewhere, including a young man named Michael Jordan—and all of us from Chicago are thankful for that. But more importantly, Coach Smith showed us something that I've seen again and again on the court – that basketball can tell us a lot more about who you are than a jumpshot alone ever could. He graduated more than 96 percent of his players and taught his teams to point to the teammate who passed them the ball after a basket. He pushed forward the Civil Rights movement, recruiting the first black scholarship athlete to North Carolina and helping to integrate a restaurant and a neighborhood in Chapel Hill. And in his final years, Coach Smith showed us how to fight an illness with courage and dignity. For all of that, I couldn’t have been prouder to honor Coach Smith with Medal of Freedom in 2013. Michelle and I send our thoughts and prayers to his wife Linnea, to his family, and to his fans all across North Carolina and the country."

This article was updated at 2:55 p.m. to include Michael Jordan and President Obama's statements.

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