from espn.com
Dean Smith, the coaching innovator who won two national championships at North Carolina, an Olympic gold medal in 1976 and induction into basketball’s Hall of Fame more than a decade before he left the bench, has died. He was 83.
The retired coach died “peacefully” at his North Carolina home Saturday night, the school said in a statement Sunday from Smith’s family. He was with his wife and five children.
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Smith had health issues in recent years, with the family saying in 2010 that he had a condition that was causing him to lose memory. He had kept a lower profile during that time. His wife, Linnea, accepted the Presidential Medal of Freedom on his behalf from President Barack Obama in November 2013.
Roy Williams, the current North Carolina coach who spent 10 years as Smith’s assistant, said Smith “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. “W
Jim Orban
As a Terp fan who attended UMD from 1970-1974, I have grudging admiration for coach Smith. Back then, he was despised by Terp fans (and many others) for perfecting and frequently utilizing the “Four Corners Offense”, which he used to chew up the clock whenever Carolina had a meager lead in the second half. Although I haven’t seen this fact mentioned in any of the articles I’ve read about him, I think it’s fair to say that Smith was the primary reason that college basketball adopted the shot clock. So you could say that this was another impact he had on the game, albeit unintentionally. R.I.P., coach Smith!
· 11/12/2019