It was a Thursday afternoon in 1984 when Woody Durham got an invitation to play golf.
“Woody?” Dean Smith asked from the other line. “Can you play golf tomorrow? 1 p.m. at Chapel Hill Country Club.”
Dr. Earl Somers, Chapel Hill psychiatrist and a quarter of Smith’s regular foursome, was unable to join Simon Terrell, the head of the N.C. High School Athletics Association, and Christopher Fordham, UNC’s chancellor. Durham, the voice of the Tar Heels from 1971 to 2011, couldn’t say no.
The next day, Smith ambled up to the tee box, relief splashed across his face.
“Boy, I’ve really been looking forward to this,” he said.
Terrell scoffed. “What do you mean you’ve been ‘looking forward to this’?”
Smith smiled. “Well, last night,” he said, “I answered my last congratulatory note for the national championship.”
It was 1984. Smith won his first title in 1982. It had taken him more than two years to write back to all who had congratulated him and his Tar Heels.
Durham turned to Fordham. “Boy,” he said quietly, “that tells you again what kind of a person he is.”
A few years later, when UNC flew to England for a tournament in late December, Durham got up from his seat to visit the lavatory. It was late, and most players and staffers were asleep. But there was Smith, hunched over his pullout tray, illuminated by a dull overhead amid darkness.
“You couldn’t sleep either, huh?” Durham asked.
“No,” Smith said. “This is a tough time.”
Durham went to the bathroom. He stopped at Smith’s seat on his way back. “What’s keeping you busy tonight?” he asked.
“I’m just getting out a few Christmas cards,” Smith said.
“That’s nice,” Durham said. “What about this batch that you’re working on right now?”
They were letters to the families of recruits — recruits who didn’t choose Chapel Hill, who played basketball elsewhere. But their families had built a relationship with Smith, stained none at all by the decisions of their sons, and their kindness to him was enough to warrant kindness in return.
And when Smith won his second and final NCAA championship in 1993, he needed six months to reply to every UNC faculty member who wrote congratulatory notes. Because the human connection meant more to Smith than any on-court triumph.
“I’ve never run across a person that was like he was in that category,” Durham said of Smith’s penchant for remembering and acknowledging. He was then asked what today’s UNC students, years removed from Smith’s basketball heyday, should tell their kids about the iconic coach who passed away Saturday night.
“He was an outstanding coach, and a lot of people can remember that, but what you need to know is what an outstanding person he was, and what he did for society and things of that type,” the 73-year-old Durham said. “If you can share that with your children, then you probably can go ahead and tell them that we need more people in the world like that.”
More than a dozen people reached out to The Daily Tar Heel to share their memories, and mementos, of Dean Smith. He left bread crumbs of humanity everywhere — young and old, black and white, neighbors and strangers.
The DTH couldn’t fit everyone’s testimonials to Smith’s not-so-random acts of kindness in its print story Monday. It made room in this space to include everyone, from airline pilots to former team managers, who felt the warmth of an uncommon heart.
Here are letters, and autographs, and indelible impressions, from Dean:
UPDATE, FEB. 23: The Daily Tar Heel has continued to receive messages and mementos from those touched by Dean Smith. The most recent submissions are included below:
KENAN MULLIS
It was October 1998, and Kenan Mullis was a freshman at Wando High School in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. His honors English teacher, Mrs. Woods, asked Kenan's class to write an essay on modern-day heroes. Mullis chose Dean Smith as his subject.
"Dean Smith's reputation on the basketball court, legendary as it is, cannot compare with his reputation off of it," the final paragraph of Mullis's essay begins. "Smith has never backed down from his beliefs. His retirement in 1997 left him with 879 wins in the game of basketball, the most by any college coach. But this statistic always seems to overshadow Dean Smith's real accomplishments...the ones that occur off the basketball court. He cared for his players like a parent, took a stand against racism and discrimination when it was unpopular to do so, and unselfishly gave to charities and social causes. Perhaps Washington Post columnist Michael Wilbon sums it up best when he says, 'Dean Smith, by far, is a greater man than he is a basketball coach. And he is on any short list of the greatest basketball coaches of all time. Smith is a man you could send your son to for four years and know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, the kid would come back a man. It's documented.'"
Mrs. Woods gave Mullis an A. His father, Danny, distributed the essay to friends, and Inside Carolina published the full piece in its March/April 1999 issue. But Smith — naturally — learned of the essay before the media. Danny's circulation efforts paid off, and Kenan's paper wended its way to Smith two weeks before Christmas in 1998. He wrote the following letter, demonstrating for the umpteenth time why, as Kenan wrote in his essay, Smith was "one of the most generous, caring, down-to-earth people one could ever know."
DAVID W. DUPONT, former James Madison basketball guard (his son, David M. Dupont, was a member of UNC's original "Blue Steel" crew in 2010 and graduated with Tyler Zeller in 2012)
Michael Jordan guards JMU guard David Dupont (Photo Courtesy of David Dupont)
"I grew up in Greensboro and played for Page High School. My senior year in 1979, we won the state championship , and I received the MVP award. (As an aside, we played James Worthy's team in the tournament. I ran into him when Carolina played Michigan State aboard the U.S.S. Carl Vinson in November 2011, and he still remembers the game!) It would have been my dream to play for Carolina, but at that period of time, they had no scholarship positions open. Roy Williams, the assistant coach at that time, put a call into Ernie Nestor, an assistant at Wake Forest and now an assistant at Navy, and Lou Campanelli, the head coach at James Madison University, to tell them about me. I was offered a four-year scholarship to JMU, where we ended up playing UNC twice in the NCAA tournament in 1982 and 1983 (North Carolina won both games).
"I received this letter after graduating from JMU in 1983. It is quite a testimony of the type of man Dean Smith was. The fact that he remembered me, followed my basketball career at JMU and took the time to draft this letter is simply amazing considering how busy he was."
Photo Courtesy of David Dupont
JOSHUA ZACHARIAS, Leawood, Kansas
"When I was a senior in high school in 1993, I wrote Coach Smith a letter congratulating him on the NCAA championship. I told him though I was planning to go to Kansas, I was also a Tar Heels fan.
"A few months later in August, I received a typed form letter back from the basketball office saying 'thank you for the note, etc.,' which he signed. At the bottom of the letter, Coach Smith wrote the following by hand:
'Joshua, remember, KU is my alma mater! (Ha). Support the Tar Heels and the Jayhawks.
Best Always, D.'
"I have this letter framed in my basement along with a picture I took with him when he was inducted into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame in Kansas City in November 2006.
"Today I am going to Kansas' first home basketball game since Coach Smith passed away. I'm hoping that they have a moment of silence for him or something else to recognize his contribution to Kansas basketball, college basketball overall and, more importantly, the recognition for the type of example he set for men and leaders*."
*Before its Feb. 14 home game against Baylor, Kansas held a moment of silence in honor of Smith and also played a two-minute video in his memory.
JENNIFER JORDAN ENGEL, 1994 UNC graduate
"I had to dig around in a memory box to find this lighthearted photo of Dean Smith. I assure you it is real — it came into my possession sometime in the '90s, long before photoshopping was a thing. My memory is a little rusty, but here are the pieces of the story I remember:
"I was working at my family's advertising agency, and one day my stepfather's partner came back from a studio where he'd been putting the finishing touches on a commercial. He handed me this print that was clearly a screen capture from a video (on the back it has a Sony Print Paper logo). He shared with me that it was from Coach Smith's television show, hosted by John Kilgo, and it was during a little bit of downtime between segments that Coach made a silly face at the camera. Three prints were quietly made of it, according to my boss — one for a Carolina booster, one for a Duke coach (I have no idea which one), and, because of some strings pulled, one he was gifting to me because of my well-known love for my alma mater and all things Carolina basketball.
"It's always made me smile because it's a playful side of Coach Smith that most of us didn't get to see. I sent it to the UNC athletic department and hope it brings fond memories to those within his inner circle who shared laughter and true friendship with him over the years."
Photo Courtesy of Jennifer Jordan Engel
JEFF BARDEL, community relations manager, Barnes & Noble
Jeff Bardel lost his right arm in 1993 while working at a glass plant in Laurinburg, N.C. He was 18 and crestfallen. He was to begin, in a few months, his baseball career at Appalachian State.
Bardel was a Tar Heel fan by birth. When his recovery sent him to Duke, he wore UNC apparel each of the 16 days he spent there. A few of Bardel’s friends reached out to UNC’s basketball program to share his story. Smith soon heard it, for he was blessed with an altruist’s ears. He sent a letter dated July 30, 1993.
“I probably can’t imagine the feelings you are having right now,” Smith wrote, “but I do know that, as hard as it may be, if you can try to focus on the things you do have, you will be able to go to school and move into other things that will be rewarding.”
“It took the pain away for a while for a broken 18 year old,” Bardel wrote Sunday on Facebook.
Smith instructed two trainers to visit Bardel and give him a signed basketball. He slipped on their 1993 national championship rings, too.
Photos Courtesy of Jeff Bardel
“Jeff —
Hope you’ll be playing baseball again soon!
Best wishes in the years ahead —
Dean Smith.”
DANIEL JOHNSON, partner at the Raleigh law firm Willis Johnson & Nelson
Daniel Johnson joined the Navy after he graduated from UNC in 1998. An accident at sea little more than a year after he graduated claimed both of his legs. His younger brother, Will, was a freshman forward on Bill Guthridge’s 1999-2000 Tar Heels. Smith soon heard of Johnson’s tale, and he sent him a letter while Johnson recovered at Walter Reed Army Hospital. It was handwritten and heartfelt, a splash of Smith’s patented compassion.
“That note hangs in my office to this day and serves as a reminder that, no matter how busy my day may be, it is important to make time to care about and to support those in need,” said Johnson, now a partner at the Raleigh law firm Willis Johnson & Nelson.
Photo Courtesy of Daniel Johnson
“Dear Daniel,
Although I have met your charming parents and have come to know Will better, I surely look forward to meeting you. What a great story of caring and courage you demonstrated!
I understand you are progressing although you experience much pain. It should be helpful to have Mom and Dad at your side as you begin this next journey with the prosthesis.
I did watch Will play with our players here for the first time last week. I told him and also the coaching staff how impressed I was with his potential and work habits. Perhaps you could even see Will in the Blue-White Game if all goes well. You are special!!!
Sincerely,
Dean Smith”
TIM MESSER, United Airlines captain
Tim Messer, a captain for United Airlines, graduated from UNC in 1984. He celebrated Smith’s first championship in 1982 as a student. He flies a UNC flag outside his home in Keswick, Va., a stone’s throw from Charlottesville and Wahoo country.
In the early 2000s, his friend, Mike Wilkerson, a captain for Delta Airlines, had Smith on one of his flights. He tore a spare sheet of aviation paper from the cockpit and asked Smith if he would sign it. Smith did, of course. And Wilkerson gave it to Messer, the biggest Tar Heel fan he knew, who framed it and displayed it in his basement.
“Being a kid at Carolina in the early ‘80s, those were the days when no one could argue with Dean Smith from an integrity level, a sportsmanship level,” Messer said Sunday night by phone. “That’s when you could truly say, ‘We do it the right way.’”
“You gotta have somebody that you can look at and say, ‘Man, he made difficult choices, but he made the right choices,” Messer said. “The whole family thing — once you’re part of the family, you’re always part of the family, no matter what.”
Messer was skiing in Virginia when he heard the news of Smith’s passing. When he returned home, he plucked Smith’s note from the basement and promoted it to a distinguished spot in his living room.
“Michael —
Best wishes and thanks for the flight!
Dean Smith.”
GARDNER REECE
“My dad requested this from the basketball office, and of course, Coach mailed this to our house.”
Photo Courtesy of Gardner Reece
KRISTEN KENNY, DMO sales executive, LatAm & The Caribbean
Kristen Kenny is a 2010 UNC graduate. Her dad, Eric, played for Smith from 1978 to 1981. Smith wrote Eric when Kristen was born in 1988.
Photo Courtesy of Kristen Kenny
Smith also wrote Kristen’s brother Michael when he was in the fourth grade.
Photo Courtesy of Michael Kenny
SHELDON McCURRY STOKES, J.D. candidate, class of 2016, UNC School of Law
“I was on an airplane to LAX for a connection on my way to my semester to study abroad in Australia when I noticed that I was sitting in the same row as Dean and his daughter. They were on their way to California for a treatment for Dean. This was in 2010, so he was not in his best state of mind, unfortunately. But I did ask his daughter if he would mind giving me an autograph. In typical Dean fashion, he wrote more than just an autograph:
‘Sheldon, you will do great in whatever you choose to do. We are happy to have you at UNC, Dean Smith.’
“To say the least, that was the longest five-hour flight of my life knowing I had just met Dean Smith and got his autograph and could not call my family to gloat. I then spent the next five months guarding that signed notecard in purple marker so I could have it framed as soon as I got home! It will forever be one of my most prized possessions.”
SALLY COOKE, executive assistant in president’s office, Piedmont Technical College
“One Christmas, in 1987, I got my husband, Gary, a copy of Coach Smith's book ‘Basketball: Multiple Offense and Defense.’ I was working as an investment broker in Chapel Hill at the time, so I left it at his office for an autograph. His assistant, Linda Woods, carefully put it in the file cabinet packed with other items to be autographed. When I picked it up, Coach had not only autographed the fly leaf, but he had also taken the time to write a lovely note to my husband that included telling him to, "teach Sally some basketball!"
JJ MILLER, deputy executive producer, The Huffington Post; former UNC basketball manager, 1990-1994
“When I was a little girl learning about the Carolina Basketball tradition, I was taught Coach Smith was a great coach, he invented the Four Corners, and he won lots of games. But hand in hand with those stories, I was taught that he was about so much more — that he helped integrate the South, protested against the death penalty and nukes. It still astounds me that he was such a successful coach, but that coaching was just a part of the man he was.
“I will never forget heading into the '93 NCAA tournament, by far the most frenetic and fraught time of year. I was working as a manager, and my grandfather, who loved Coach Smith and Carolina Basketball, was very sick, in the hospital. Coach Smith learned about this and took the time to write a letter to him that ended with "see us through ‘til the end of the tournament." He couldn't possibly know what that meant to my family and me, but I know he made those gestures regularly.
“There are so few heroes these days. I will miss knowing he's in the world. He was one of mine.”
CHRIS GOODMAN SHAVER, Mooresville, N.C.
“My daddy, the late Oscar Reid Goodman, was a true-blue Tar Heels fan, never missing an ACC tournament and attending all Carolina games that he could. He was diagnosed with cancer in December 1989. I’m not really sure how Coach Smith found out about Daddy's health, but one small gesture from him sure touched the heart of a 55-year-old man facing death much too soon. He sent my daddy an autographed ‘get well’ card with not only his signature, but also the signatures of the entire basketball team at that time. I will never forget that kindness by Coach Smith — he made my Daddy smile in the worst of circumstances.
“I have no doubt whatsoever that my daddy was one of the first in line to welcome Coach Smith to heaven.”
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