Smith, Dean 1931–
Smith, Dean 1931–
PERSONAL: Born February 28, 1931, in Emporia, KS; son of Alfred (a high school coach) and Vesta (a schoolteacher) Smith; married; wife's name Linnea (a psychiatrist); children: Sandy, Sharon, Scott, Kristen, Kelly. Ethnicity: "Caucasian." Education: University of Kansas, B.A., 1953.
ADDRESSES: Office—c/o Dean E. Smith Center, Bowles Dr., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27514; fax: 919-966-3173.
CAREER: University of Kansas, Lawrence, assistant basketball coach, beginning 1953; U.S. Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs, CO, assistant basketball coach, c. 1955–58; University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, assistant coach, c. 1958–61, head basketball coach, 1961–97. Military service: U.S. Air Force; served in Germany; became lieutenant.
AWARDS, HONORS: Named one of the five greatest coaches of the twentieth century in any sport by a panel of sportswriters and broadcasters elected by the American Broadcasting Companies and the ESPN cable television network; inducted into North Carolina Hall of Fame, 1981; inducted into Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, 1983; named sportsman of the year, Sports Illustrated, 1997.
WRITINGS:
Basketball: Multiple Offense and Defense, Prentice Hall (Englewood Cliffs, NJ), 1982.
(With John Kilgo and Sally Jenkins) A Coach's Life (memoir), Random House (New York, NY), 1999.
(With John Kilgo and Gerard Bell) The Carolina Way, Penguin Books (New York, NY), 2004.
SIDELIGHTS: After retiring from a thirty-six-year career as basketball coach at the University of North Carolina, Dean Smith, the "winningest" coach in college basketball history, penned a well-received memoir, as well as a specialized book on basketball strategy and coaching. Many reviewers considered A Coach's Life to be a superior example of the sports-memoir genre and recommended it as a wise and insightful overview of a successful career.
In the late 1950s, Smith accepted an assistant coach position at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In 1961 he became head coach and embarked on a career that, by his retirement in 1997, included a record 879 victories and National College Athletic Association (NCAA) titles in 1982 and 1992. Among the stars Smith coached were Michael Jordan, Bobby Jones, and Bob McAdoo. In addition to teaching a high level of play, Smith insisted on good conduct and academic achievement for his players: 237 out of his 245 lettermen received their degrees—an extraordinary high proportion at a time when the NCAA was plagued by controversy about poor graduation rates for athletes. Smith pushed to integrate college basketball in the South, and fought against rough plays, unsporting conduct, alcohol abuse, and exploitation of women among college athletes. Smith has followed the post-basketball careers of his stars and has expressed much pride in their achievements as successful businessmen and professionals.
So outstanding were Smith's accomplishments and reputation that Sports Illustrated writer Ron Fimrite, in his review of Smith's book, observed, "This humble memoir should dispel the notion that Dean Smith is too good to be true. In fact, it's all too true that Smith is good." Critics generally found Smith's book to be warm, well-written, and filled with sensible and moral views. As a reviewer for Publishers Weekly put it, "Although Smith indulges in some stock homilies and bromides about 'life fundamentals,' he comes off as a man with compassion, modesty and honesty, as well as competitive drive." Booklist reviewer Wes Lukowsky especially appreciated Smith's emphasis on his role as mentor, observing that he brought more insight into his memoir than most coaches do. "Smith won more games than his peers," Lukowsky concluded, "and now he's written a better book, too."
In 1997, the year he retired from college basketball, Smith was named Sports Illustrated sportsman of the year. In the cover story on the award, senior writer Alexander Wolff observed: "The passage of time has flattered Dean Smith … [and] drawn a portrait of someone far more complex than the usual sideline screamer…. We marvel at how a man so stern summons such compassion, and a man so competitive summons such perspective…. Integrity is the trade-off that college coaches have never gotten quite right … but [Smith] has proved it's possible to abide by both."
In an interview with Wolff in the same issue, Smith explained that, as he matured, he developed a philosophy emphasizing good play over winning. He credited a book by Catherine Marshall, Beyond Ourselves, as an inspiration when he encountered a low point in his career and was hanged in effigy after a huge loss to Wake Forest in 1965. "There was a chapter called 'The Power of Helplessness,'" Smith told Wolff. "You just turn everything over and don't worry about it. You realize you're helpless, and all of a sudden you feel at peace." Smith explained that this resonated with him as "more what Christianity is supposed to be than a lot of what we see today." He went on to describe how he tried to express some of this philosophy in a commencement speech he gave at Eastern College in Pennsylvania. Emulating Winston Churchill, who had famously said "Never, never, never, never, never, never, quit," Smith said simply "Always, always, always, always, always, always quit." We are most free, he indicated in the interview, when we can give up control to a higher spirit.
Smith also told Wolff that he intended to enjoy an active retirement, including not only recreational golf, but also some consulting work for the University of North Carolina's athletic department. Smith hoped to teach a seminar on sports and society at the university, and planned to teach basketball coaching classes and to conduct sports clinics as well. He was also considering television commentary work and hoped to be available for NCAA committee work if asked.
BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:
BOOKS
Smith, Dean, John Kilgo, and Sally Jenkins, A Coach's Life, Random House (New York, NY), 1999.
PERIODICALS
Booklist, October 15, 1999, p. 409.
Library Journal, November 1, 1999, p. 92.
Newsweek, November 10, 1997, p. 66.
Publishers Weekly, October 25, 1999, p. 68.
Sport, January, 1980, p. 67; April, 1994, p. 60.
Sporting News, April 4, 1981, p. 13; October 20, 1997, p. 40.
Sports Illustrated, March 24, 1997, p. 32; October 20, 1997, p. 60; November 1, 1997, p. R9; December 22, 1997, p. 32, p. 50.
Time, October 20, 1997, p. 93.
ONLINE
Official Athletics Site of the University of North Carolina Tar Heels, http://tarheelblue.fansonly.com/ (February 21, 2001), "A Tribute to Dean Smith."