Dean SmithDean Edwards Smith (born February 28, 1931 at Emporia, Kansas) was the head coach of the UNC Tar Heels men's basketball team from 1961 to 1997. The legendary Smith was consistently regarded as one of the leading coaches in the country, and still holds the record for the most victories by an NCAA Division I head coach, with 879. The basketball arena at UNC is officially the Dean E. Smith Student Activities Center, known as the Dean Dome. In 1997, he was named Sports Illustrated magazine's "Sportsman of the Year." His teams went to the Final Four 11 times, winning the NCAA Championship twice. His first championship came in '82, with a lineup featuring All-American forwards James Worthy and Sam Perkins, plus a young freshman by the name of Michael Jordan. One signal characteristic of his career was its consistency, with his teams winning at least 20 games a year for 27 years in a row. He also coached the United States Olympic Basketball team to a gold medal in Montreal, Canada in 1976. He has been credited in the media with introducing a number of innovations, including the "tired signal," in which a player would use a hand signal (originally a raised fist) to indicate that he needed to come out for a rest. He was also known for being reluctant to call time outs early in the game since they are useful to manage the clock near the end, which has become standard practice. One strategy he made infamous was the four corners offense, a strategy for stalling with a lead near the end of the game. The introduction of a shot clock in the early eighties, which he supported, made that offense mostly obsolete. Although it is believed that fellow Kansas alum John McClendon invented the stall offense technique, Smith is better known for utilizing it in games.
Categories: 1931 births | College men's basketball coaches |
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