Just chatted briefly by phone with Jim Calhoun, who was profoundly influenced by Dean Smith over the years.Here's some of what Calhoun had to say about Smith, who passed away Saturday evening at age 83:
"He showed me the difference between a team and a program. A team is one year, a program -- in his case, the University of North Carolina -- continues to go on forever. He's just a special guy. To the outside world, he was about Carolina, but he was a great ambassador, much involved with civil rights. People who competed against him understood you were going against a very special guy."
"The world benefitted from what he did with Carolina basketball. He was a great gentleman, one of those clear icons."
(Early in Calhoun's tenure as head coach at Northeastern, he and his staff went to Chapel Hill to see how Smith ran his program)
"We were watching their program, the way they do business -- Eddie Fogler, Roy Williams, Bill Guthridge and, of course, Dean. The way they interacted with the program, altering things -- running, pressing, especially running -- but just the way their program was handled. It was pretty special."
(on joining, even surpassing, Smith in the college basketball record books)
"My dad said you're known by the company you keep. When my name was beside (Smith's) -- Dean Smith was great, great company."
Lucky big Jim did not wish to attend English Compostion 105 or 109 for Dean Smith's enrollees on his training orientation visit to Chapel Hill. Big Jim would have been flustered to be only warm body in class to be required by grad student instructor to compose all term papers and complete Midterm and Final Exams on same daze.
ReplyDeleteLooks like you could use an English class yourself, wuffie.
ReplyDeleteWhat kind of person throws mud on someone's eulogy? Oh right, a State fan.
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ReplyDeleteDean was a father figure to many,many young coaches.
ReplyDeleteJim Calhoun had seen the completion line approaching for some time.The favored sport of analogy for his situation dependably had been boxing,in light of the fact that most everybody who knew him,observed him throughout the years,came to understand the amount he cherished a good fight.A boxer doesn't have an inkling,notwithstanding,when the chime for the end of the twelfth round is approaching.Those three minutes can appear like three hours in the wrong circumstances.Then again,a runner perceives where his final step must land.@Jeff Collins.
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