March Madness

The fellow above is one Dean Smith born February 28th, 1931 in Emporia, Kansas. Both his parents were public school teacher, and his father also coached the high school basketball team. So it was at a young age that M. Smith was exposed to the sport which he was to have such a profound effect upon. After a college career that included his playing varsity basketball at the University of Kansas, Smith went on to catch his lucky break in 1958 when legendary coach Frank McGuire asked him to join his staff at the University of North Carolina. Eventually, Smith was to become head coach at UNC in 1961, and was to remain there for the rest of his coaching career. He retired in 1997 as the (at the time) the coach with the most career wins in NCAA men's basketball history. Though he has since been passed by that dickhead Bobby Knight, Smith is still one of the best coaches I have ever seen. At least he did it the right way, UNC was never placed on any sort of probation during his long tenure, and the joke goes that he is the only man ever able to keep Michael Jordan from scoring more than 25 points a game. He won two glorious NCAA titles during his time at UNC, and the building where UNC plays their home games is named after him. So, for being a damn fine coach, and one class act, Dean Smith (February 28th, 1931-present), you are my (186th) hero of the day.