Smith, Dean E.
Basketball
b. Feb. 28, 1931, Emporia, KS
Smith went to the University of Kansas on an academic scholarship, but played baseball and basketball as well as freshman football. He was never a starter for the basketball team, which was coached by "Phog" Allen, who had learned the game from its inventor, James Naismith.
After graduating in 1953, Smith spent four years in the Air Force, the last two as an assistant basketball coach at the U. S. Air Force Academy. He then became an assistant coach to Frank McGuire at the University of North Carolina and took over as head coach when McGuire left in 1961.
Because of a point-shaving scandal, the school was allowed to play only 17 games and scholarships were limited in his first season, when his team went 8-9. During the next several years, there were calls for his resignation and he once hanged in effigy by students and alumni.
But Smith's 1966-67 team went 26-6 and won the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament. After that season, North Carolina has been in post-season play every year but 1970, winning the NCAA championship in 1982 and 1993 and going to the final four seven other times. The 1970-71 team won the National Invitation Tournament.
A meticulous planner, Smith has sometimes been criticized for a controlled style of offense that prevents talented, creative players from performing at their best. Critics point out that even Michael Jordan could average 20 points a season only once in his three-year career.
His advocates pointed out that his philosophy was much the same as that used by Red Auerbach of the Boston Celtics and other successful college and professional coaches, placing the team concept above the individual. As a team, North Carolina scored well. Smith's 1992-93 championship team, for example, averaged 86.1 points a game, about 12 points more than the national average that season.
Smith developed the four-corner offense, originally as a delay tactic to run time off the clock late in the game, but it was later refined to take advantage of the spread-out defense to free a player streaking toward the basket for an easy shot.
In 1967, Smith become the youngest member ever of the College Basketball Rules Committee. He coached the U. S. Olympic team that won a gold medal in 1976.
Smith suddenly announced his retirement in October of 1997. His 879 victories was then a record, which was broken by Bob Knight in 2007. He and Knight are the only men to have played for and coached an NCAA championship team.
