Friends in High Places
“As soon as you try to describe a close friendship, it loses something.”
Smith coached the basketball team at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for 36 years — from 1961-1997. In addition to his record wins and personal character, he was regarded as a desegregation advocate who lead by example. He recruited the university’s first African-American scholarship basketball player, Charlie Scott, in the late 1960s. Smith passed away on February 7th in Chapel Hill.
(photographs of the Scott Nurkin (2015) Dean Smith mural in progress were taken off of Smith Level Road and US 15-501 in Chapel Hill near the Orange/Chatham county line. Nurkin is known for signature murals around town including Greetings from Chapel Hill which can be seen off of Rosemary Street near Colombia Street in downtown Chapel Hill.)