One Shining Example

AT THE TOP AND STEPPING DOWN

"Good men plan"

Smith broke Rupp's record on March 15, 1997, with his 877th career victory, a second-round NCAA tournament defeat of Colorado in Winston-Salem. He deflected credit, choosing instead to dedicate the achievement to those who had come through his program. When he retired the following fall, he did so in a way just as mindful of his basketball family, waiting until the eve of fall practice to ensure that the job would go to his aide of 30 years, Bill Guthridge.

Smith is left with a wealth of memories, which, given his astonishing powers of recall and nearly 67 years to cull from, will serve him well.

MARILYN TOWLER ROBERTS:
I talked to him a few months ago, and he said, "You sound just like your mother." And I thought to myself, How could he remember what my mother sounded like? She's been gone for more than 20 years. Before he hung up he said, "Your birthday's on the 29th. Happy birthday."

BILL GUTHRIDGE, assistant, 1967-97:
One of our recruits my first year was Steve Previs, a guard from Bethel Park, right outside Pittsburgh. Dean and I had been there once in the fall to visit Steve, who lived in this subdivision with a maze of streets. We went back in the spring, and Dean made 10 or 15 turns, right to the house. There were five guys in that recruiting class, and I have no doubt he could drive back to the homes of any of them today.

LARRY BROWN, guard, 1961-63, and assistant coach, '65-67:
A few years ago, during one of those times when we all come back to visit him over the summer, he talked to [former Tar Heels assistant coach] Eddie [Fogler] and Roy [ Williams] and me about the possibility that he might step down before he broke the record. He knew there'd be all the media attention, and he didn't want it. All of us made a pact that we wouldn't let him step down.

KRISTEN SMITH, daughter and a North Carolina freshman:
Last spring I was enrolled in an advanced placement American history course. My mom [ Chapel Hill psychiatrist Linnea Smith] and dad weren't going to let me go down to Winston-Salem [for the record-breaking game] unless I brought my homework with me. It became this big deal in the newspaper: Coach Smith's daughter was reading her history book before the game.

Everybody was teasing me about it at school. It's not that I was bored, just that this was a Thursday night, a school night, and that was the rule before a game. Even that game.

CHARLIE SHAFFER:
When I got back to Atlanta the night he broke the record, watching his press conference on the news, I heard him say, "I want to recognize all the assistants who coached with me and all the players who played for me. I don't have time to name them all, but I could do it." Which I don't doubt. And then he said, "They all share in this moment, if indeed it is a moment." I thought, You've broken the alltime record. You can at least call it a moment.