Coach Dean Smith, 83, won on, off court
He led UNC to 2 national titles and fought injustice.
Dean Smith was more than a basketball coach.
Yes, the retired Hall of Famer left North Carolina as the winningest coach in men's history after capturing two national titles along with the 1976 Olympic gold medal and coaching some of the sport's biggest names, including Michael Jordan.
But he also was an innovator who left a lasting influence on the sport, as well as someone known for his stand on civil rights driven by the belief that it was the right thing to do.
Mr. Smith died "peacefully" Saturday at age 83 at his Chapel Hill home, his family said in a statement released by the school Sunday. He was with his wife and five children.
Roy Williams, the Tar Heels coach and Mr. Smith's assistant for 10 years, said his mentor was the "greatest there ever was on the court but far, far better off the court with people."
"I'd like to say on behalf of all our players and coaches, past and present, that Dean Smith was the perfect picture of what a college basketball coach should have been," Williams said in a statement. "We love him and we will miss him."
Mr. Smith kept a lower profile amid health issues in recent years, with his family saying in 2010 he had a condition that was causing him to lose memory.
At the urging of his pastor, he recruited black athletes, and in 1967 made Charlie Scott the school's first black scholarship athlete and one of the first in the segregated South.
In a statement Sunday, President Obama said Mr. Smith "pushed forward" the civil rights movement with Scott's recruitment as well as helping integrate a restaurant and a neighborhood in Chapel Hill.
On the court, his "Four Corners" offense led to the adoption of the shot clock to counter it.
At UNC, he tutored perhaps the game's greatest player in Jordan - who burst onto the national stage as a freshman by hitting the winning shot in the 1982 NCAA final - and two of basketball's most successful coaches, fellow Hall of Famers Larry Brown and Williams.
In a statement Sunday, Jordan said Mr. Smith was "more than a coach - he was a mentor, my teacher, my second father. Coach was always there for me whenever I needed him and I loved him for it."
Mr. Smith 's only losing season was his first when he went 8-9, and he left the game in October 1997 having surpassed Kentucky's Adolph Rupp as the winningest coach in Division I men's history with 879 wins in 36 seasons - a record now held by Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski.
Mr. Smith led the Tar Heels to 13 Atlantic Coast Conference tournament championships and 11 Final Fours, winning NCAA titles in 1982 against Georgetown and 1993 against Michigan. Along the way, more than 95 percent of Mr. Smith's lettermen graduated.
Born Feb. 28, 1931, in Emporia, Kansas, the son of public school teachers, he graduated from Kansas in 1953. He served as an assistant coach at Kansas to Phog Allen and Dick Harp. He joined Frank McGuire's staff at UNC in 1958. When McGuire left for the NBA in 1961, the university chose Mr. Smith, then 30, as coach.
In addition to wife Linnea, Mr. Smith is survived by daughters Sandy, Sharon, Kristen and Kelly; son Scott; seven grandchildren, and one great-granddaughter. Funeral plans were not announced.
RECOLLECTIONS
St. Joseph's coach Phil Martelli
"Dean Smith is to be a role model for all who coach because he embraced the concept of being a teacher, which is the charge we are all given. Coach is a title - teacher is the job. Dean Smith did it better than anyone else I have had the opportunity to meet."
La Salle coach
John Giannini
"As a young coach you looked at him as a giant because he was the most successful coach of all time. But as you got older and studied him you look at him as a blueprint. He showed the way to build a program, mentor players and coaches, think creatively and act with integrity. He was everything you could admire."
Temple coach
Fran Dunphy
"I was coaching at La Salle with Speedy [Morris] and we were playing North Carolina at the Palestra. I was the last assistant coach to get to see Dean Smith before the game starts as we were shaking hands. As I got to him he said, 'Fran have a great game tonight.' . . . I was saying, 'How does this guy know my name?' That is what he did. He is one of those guys who went through press guides and said if I use first name, he will never forget it and I haven't forgotten it for 30 years."