Bill Guthridge’s life defined by loyalty

Bill Guthridge had a decision to make.

The year was 1978, and following the North Carolina men’s basketball team’s loss to San Francisco in the NCAA Tournament, Guthridge — who died Tuesday night at the age of 77 of heart failure — was faced with a dilemma as he checked his bags at an Arizona airport.

With his 10th season as an assistant coach at UNC in the books, Guthridge was unsure of whether or not he was going to return to Chapel Hill.

An offer to be the head coach at Penn State was on the table, and he had already begun to recruit former players to be his assistants.

But being the loyal man former players and fellow coaches describe him as, Guthridge couldn’t bear to think about leaving Chapel Hill as well as friend and Tar Heel head coach Dean Smith.

So instead of taking a direct flight to either destination, Guthridge took a flight to Chicago, where he mulled over the decision for the entire flight. But upon landing, he went to baggage claim, picked up his bags and put them on the flight to the Raleigh-Durham International Airport.

“He thought it would be better for him and for Carolina basketball if he stayed with Coach Smith,” said Woody Durham, a play-by-play announcer for UNC football and men’s basketball for 40 years.

For 23 more years Guthridge would stay on the UNC sidelines — remaining an assistant until Smith retired in 1997, when he took over the head coaching position for three seasons before retiring.

Guthridge never wanted to leave Chapel Hill, just as those around him never wanted to see him go.

More than a coach

Roy Williams had a decision to make.

Williams, now North Carolina’s head basketball coach, first began his coaching career at Charles D. Owen High School in Black Mountain, N.C., in 1973, just one year removed from graduating from UNC.

But by 1978, Williams had become restless. He was almost entirely focused on coaching.

He knew he wanted to make the next step, and unsure of how to begin, he met with Guthridge for lunch to discuss his concerns.

“I told him that I thought I was cheating the students I had,” he said.

“I was teaching five classes in health and physical education, and the only thing I was thinking about was my 15 or 16 players on my basketball team.”

Williams mentioned to Guthridge that he was thinking of applying for a graduate assistant position at another school. The next night, at dinner, Smith asked Williams to come back to his alma mater as a part-time assistant.

That was the way Guthridge was with his former players, including Williams, who played under the longtime assistant on the freshman team in 1968-69.

He was there when they needed him to be, although he didn’t shy away from making sure his players were there for the program.

“He held us accountable for everything,” said Buzz Peterson, who played under Guthridge from 1981-85.

“At the time, you were upset that you had to go do extra ... but when you grow older you realize that what you learned there helped you out so much.

“If he told me to run through a wall right now I’d go do it. That’s how much I believed in him.”

Guthridge was to some of his players a mentor, a life coach, a friend, a father-figure and everything else that someone could be for another person.

Hubert Davis, who played for UNC from 1988-92, hopes that his children find the type of person that is these things to them, just as Guthridge was in his life.

“I pray that they would have someone like a Coach Guthridge to love them and support them, teach them, be committed to them ... be an example for them to be the best person they can be,” he said.

A friend in Dean

There was never really a decision to make.

Those outside the North Carolina locker room during the years when Guthridge and Smith coached together probably didn’t know the extent of their relationship. From the outside, the two just seemed different — Smith the more people-friendly while Guthridge was more reserved and task oriented.

But for those who have had the pleasure of knowing both men during this period, they know how they complemented each other. They know just how close they were.

“Coach Smith and Coach Guthridge, they go together like peanut butter and jelly,” said Joseph Forte, who played under Guthridge during the 1999-2000 season. “I don’t think you could have been any closer than those two. I’ve never seen a friendship so strong.”

Others close to the pair said that Guthridge just had a feel for Smith, like he could tell what he was thinking before he ever said it. He was happy to work in Smith’s shadow, to do the things he knew Smith wasn’t necessarily the best at.

“Coach Smith had so many strengths and very few weaknesses,” Williams said. “And the weaknesses he did have, Coach Guthridge tried to fill, and tried to do all of those little things that made Coach Smith go crazy, and he’d try to do them and do a great job with them.”

In the end, this is what many people believe convinced Guthridge to return to North Carolina when he pondered his future on the flight from Arizona to Chicago. He couldn’t leave North Carolina. He knew he needed Smith, just as much as he knew that Smith needed him. He was happy being the No. 2 to Smith’s No. 1.

And just over three months after Smith died, Durham knew when he heard the news Wednesday morning that even in death, the two would be bound together.

“I guess Coach Smith needed Coach Guthridge again.’”

sports@dailytarheel.com