Dean Smith

Dean Edwards Smith (February 28, 1931 – February 7, 2015) was an American men's college basketball head coach. He coached for 36 years at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, leading the program from 1961 to 1997. He retired with 879 victories, which at the time was the NCAA Division I men's basketball record; that mark stood until 2005, when Pat Summitt surpassed it with her 880th win. His .776 winning percentage ranked ninth-highest among men's college basketball coaches. Under Smith, North Carolina won two national championships and reached 11 Final Fours. The Basketball Hall of Fame called him a "coaching legend."

Before coaching, Smith played college basketball at the University of Kansas, where he won a national championship in 1952 under Hall of Fame coach Phog Allen.

Smith was known for running a clean program with a high graduation rate, with 96.6% of his athletes earning their degrees. While at North Carolina, he helped promote desegregation by recruiting the university's first African-American scholarship basketball player, Charlie Scott, and pushed for equal treatment of African Americans in the local community.