CHAPEL HILL, NC – Fans say Coach Dean Smith created a sense of family among players and the UNC community. “Dean Smith created this family. And we are his family,” says UNC Alumni Sue Field.
People came all day Sunday and into the night to pay tribute to Smith outside the arena that bears his name. “It’s just the way he did it, was, you know, you had to do it the right way,” Field says.
Smith helped win two National Championships in 36 seasons coaching Tar Heel basketball. But fans like Omar Cornite say his legacy is much more than that. “He helped.. unsegregate restautants here in North Carolina, I mean he’s created great men along with players. He’s helped the community as a whole,” Cornite says. “When you go to Chapel Hill, you feel his spirit.”
And that’s what fans take away. A man who coached some of the greatest and stayed out of the spotlight. “All the things that Coach Smith stood for that have nothing to do with basketball, hopefully embody who I am as a person and as a parent,” says UNC Alumni Robert Hobgood.
“They’ll never be another Dean Smith. He’s the best,” Cornite says. “He made you feel proud. Proud to be a Tar Heel,” says Field.
