A Coach's Life

For almost forty years, Dean Smith coached the University of North Carolina basketball team with unsurpassed success, having an impact both on the court and in the lives of countless young men. In A Coach’s Life, he looks back on the great games, teams, players, strategies, and rivalries that defined his career and, in a new final chapter, discusses his retirement from the game. The fundamentals of good basketball are the fundamentals of character—passion, discipline, focus, selflessness, and responsibility—and superlative mentor and coach Dean Smith imparts them all with equal authority.

Legendary University of North Carolina basketball coach Dean Smith tells the full story of his fabled career, and shares the life lessons taught and learned over forty years of unparalleled success as a coach and mentor.

Publishers Weekly

Largely conforming to the standard sports autobiography, former University of North Carolina basketball coach Smith recalls his career and the way it dovetailed with the evolution of college basketball over the second half of this century into a big business and media zoo. The writing is talky and easygoing, punctuated by sly humor: "I liked the '60s, but I liked them a lot better after we won a few ball games." Of meeting Michael Jordan, who played for him at UNC, Smith casually notes: "I know I'm supposed to say he was surrounded by a golden light, but the truth is, he wasn't." The son of schoolteachers, Smith writes sincerely about teaching his young, talented players the "issues" involved in basketball and in life, especially race. In a chapter called "I may Be Wrong But!" Smith reveals some of the personal and political beliefs he so tightly guarded during his career. He articulates his faith in God and his political disagreements with the Christian Coalition (relevant because Smith was long the most popular man in a state that elects Jesse Helms to the Senate) and his discomfort with athletes who appear to believe that God cares who wins a basketball game. Although Smith indulges in some stock homilies and bromides about "life fundamentals," he come off as man with compassion, modesty and honesty, as well as competitive drive. (Nov.) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Dean Smith was born in Emporia, Kansas, in 1931. At age thirty he became head coach of the University of North Carolina, and in his more than thirty-six years there, he established a peerless record—879-254, .776—as the winningest coach in college basketball history. Smith has won numerous coaching awards, including eight ACC Coach of the Year titles, and was named coach of the 1976 U.S. Olympic team. He lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

John Kilgo is a writer who has known Dean Smith for three decades. He publishes a UNC sports magazine, Carolina Blue, and was the co-host of Smith's TV show for fourteen years. Kilgo lives in Davidson, North Carolina.

Sally Jenkins is the author of Men Will Be Boys and the co-author of Pat Summitt's first book, Reach for the Summit. A veteran sports reporter whose work has been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, she has worked for The Washington Post, Sports Illustrated, and Condé Nast's Women's Sports and Fitness.