Legendary college basketball coach Dean Smith has passed away at age 83.
Smith was the head coach at North Carolina for 36 seasons from the early 1960s to the late 1990s. He won two national championships with the Tar Heels and added an Olympic gold medal to his incredible resume in 1976.
Smith’s family said in a statement that he died “peacefully” at his North Carolina home on Saturday night.
In 1983, Smith was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame. He had 879 wins as a head coach when he retired in 1997, which was an NCAA Division I record at the time.
Current UNC coach Roy Williams spent 10 seasons as an assistant under Smith. Williams, who has won two national championships of his own, has always credited Smith for his success and considered him a mentor.
“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. “We love him and we will miss him.”
Smith was more than just a basketball coach. He was also a huge advocate for civil rights in the south and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in November 2013. His wife, Linnea, accepted the reward on his behalf.
