Dean Smith played on the 1952 Kansas Jayhawks NCAA Championship team under the legendary coach Phog Allen. He coached at the University of North Carolina for 36 years. Smith became one of basketball's greatest innovators. He designed Carolina's "Four Corners" offense, devised the foul-line huddle, created the "fatigue signal" and implemented the "run-and-jump" defense. Smith is one of only three coaches to win coaching's triple crown NIT Championship (UNC, 1971), NCAA Championship (UNC, 1982 and 1993), and Olympic Gold (USA, 1976). Smith helped promote integration of the ACC. He achieved a player graduation rate of over ninety-six percent. Smith was named National Coach of the Year in 1977, 1979, 1982 and 1993. When Smith retired in 1997, he was college basketball's winningest coach, with 879 wins.

Died at age 83 on February 7, 2015