North Carolina Icon Coach Dean Smith Dies at 83

Dean Smith, the coaching innovator who won two national championships at North Carolina, an Olympic gold medal in 1976 and induction into basketball’s Hall of Fame more than a decade before he left the bench, has died. He was 83.

The retired coach died “peacefully” at his North Carolina home Saturday night, the school said in a statement Sunday from Smith’s family. He was with his wife and five children.

Dean Smith was a basketball innovator and a relentless competitor. More, though, he was a gentleman and a man of integrity, something even his rivals knew to be true.

Roy Williams, the current North Carolina coach who spent 10 years as Smith’s assistant, said Smith “was the greatest there ever was on the court but far, far better off the court with people.”

via ESPN