Today — Sunday, February 8, 2015 — the men and women who covered North Carolina basketball as beat writers and reporters are remembering Dean Edwards Smith, who died Saturday night at the age of 83.
The people who interviewed Dean Smith as part of their jobs, who traveled with him as North Carolina entrenched itself as one of the signature programs in college basketball in the final third of the 20th century, are recalling what it was that made — and will always make — this man so special.
At The Student Section, we will offer our own recollections on this iconic figure in college basketball who also became a transformative figure in the ACC and the Southern United States. In this space, we give the floor to the people and news organizations that covered the Dean more intimately and, naturally, have the most powerful stories to tell.
This is a Dean Smith reading list for you to enjoy — as a source of pleasure, as a source of poignant tears, as a source of enrichment if you’re a young person who didn’t know this man’s larger imprint on American life.
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The full obituary by the Raleigh News & Observer is here.
A deliciously wide-ranging collection of remembrances — from various Sports Illustrated writers and editors — appears here.
The great longtime college basketball writer for Sports Illustrated, Alexander Wolff, wrote about Smith in 1997, and he also wrote about Smith Sunday morning after the coach’s death was announced.
At ESPN.com, Tommy Tomlinson wrote this devastatingly beautiful portrait of the coach whose legendary memory was taken away by Alzheimer’s.
At the Raleigh News & Observer, Charlie Scott — the first black scholarship athlete at the University of North Carolina, who came to Chapel Hill in 1966 — wrote about the impact Smith had on his life.
Lauren Brownlow of Fox Sports Carolinas turned in this layered piece on the North Carolina family Smith created… and which Roy Williams is working so hard to maintain, even today. Hubert Davis figures prominently in the piece, a well-crafted attempt to capture the constant longing among Tar Heels to keep Dean Smith’s presence alive in the present-day workings of the program.
Jay Bilas, one of the most visible college basketball television analysts in the country and a player against Smith’s teams while at Duke, offered his reflection on Smith at ESPN.com.
New Jersey-based columnist Steve Politi, for NJ.com, wrote about the simple power of simple acts in the life of Dean Smith.
Pat Forde of Yahoo! Sports wrote this Dean Smith column.
Dana O’Neil of ESPN.com had this to say.
The Daily Tar Heel, the student newspaper at the University of North Carolina, offers its obituary.
Adam Lucas, at the official website of North Carolina athletics, offers a fan’s perspective crossing the generations.
At Grantland, Charles Pierce assesses both the life and the basketball career of the man, using the 1977 NCAA Tournament final and the city of Atlanta as the central settings for his work.
Matt Norlander of CBS Sports put together this far-ranging piece, complete with a 1987 video of Smith on television with John Thompson and Jim Nantz.
At the Tulsa World, Guerin Emig — who covers the University of Oklahoma — relays this story from Sooner basketball coach Lon Kruger on a first encounter with Dean Smith, one of thousands of “Dean stories” circulating through the college hoops world this week.
Ian O’Connor of ESPN.com focuses on the work Smith did at North Carolina to racially integrate his own program and the ACC as well.
A collection of articles in one link from the Raleigh News & Observer is here.
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As something of a postscript — and as an invitation to do some deeper background reading on the evolution of the University of North Carolina in the 1960s and beyond — the biography of former UNC president William Friday offers an important story which accompanies Smith’s work at that same point in time.
