• Welcome to OGBoards 10.0, keep in mind that we will be making LOTS of changes to smooth out the experience here and make it as close as possible functionally to the old software, but feel free to drop suggestions or requests in the Tech Support subforum!

Dean Smith to Receive Presidential Medal of Freedom

You fringe wackos are out of control! UNC burned him in effige! This proves that Bzzz is the king!
 
To be fair, K probably deserves one a whole lot more than Dean Smith does.
 
Smith is one of the most prominent Democrats in North Carolina politics. Politically, he is best known for promoting desegregation. In 1964, Smith joined a local pastor and a black North Carolina theology student to integrate The Pines, a Chapel Hill restaurant. He also integrated the Tar Heels basketball team by recruiting Charlie Scott as the university's first black scholarship athlete.[5] In 1965, Smith helped Howard Lee, a black graduate student at North Carolina, purchase a home in an all-white neighborhood.[8] He opposed the Vietnam War and, in the early 1980s, famously recorded radio spots to promote a freeze on nuclear weapons. He has been a prominent opponent of the death penalty. In 1998, he appeared at a clemency hearing for a death-row inmate and pointed at then-Governor Jim Hunt: "You're a murderer. And I'm a murderer. The death penalty makes us all murderers." As head coach, he periodically held North Carolina basketball practices in North Carolina prisons.[36]

While coach, he was recruited by some in the Democratic Party to run for the United States Senate against incumbent Jesse Helms. He declined. But in retirement, he has continued to speak out on issues such as the war in Iraq, death penalty and gay rights.[36][37] Although a staunch Democrat, Smith did support one of his former players, Republican Richard Vinroot, for governor of North Carolina in 2000.[38][39] In 2006, Smith became the spokesperson for Devout Democrats, an inter-faith, grassroots political action committee designed to convince religious Americans to vote for Democrats. Smith was featured in an ad that ran in newspapers across North Carolina and was featured in an Associated Press article.[40] On October 13, 2008, he endorsed Senator Barack Obama's candidacy for President of the United States.[41]


I'm sure none of this has anything to do with this honor.
 
How do you figure? His relentless efforts to give overachieving white point guards a chance?

"The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the nation’s highest civilian honor, according to the White House, and is 'presented to individuals who have made especially meritorious contributions to the security or national interests of the United States, to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors.'"


Given the criteria, K's run with the US Olympic team would probably trump anything on Smith's resume. And K coached at Army as well. Both of those things mean a whole lot more to the country than what Smith did to make UNC a power.
 
"The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the nation’s highest civilian honor, according to the White House, and is 'presented to individuals who have made especially meritorious contributions to the security or national interests of the United States, to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors.'"


Given the criteria, K's run with the US Olympic team would probably trump anything on Smith's resume. And K coached at Army as well. Both of those things mean a whole lot more to the country than what Smith did to make UNC a power.

^^

You don't get this award because you were a good coach who coached the US national team (which Smith did too, by the way).
 
Last edited:
Without Dean there would be no shot clock. I salute the man.
 
This is the definitive post on this thread. If everyone would just step back and forget about the Dean Smith/UNC connection for a minute, any reasonable person would see the importance of the contributions that Dean Smith has made in his lifetime to the "national interests" of this country.

Well, of course, we expect you to say that. You're a UNC fan.
 
I hope you are just trying to get a rise, because you really don't have a clue if you actually believe that. As I've said, I was the only boy in my 5th grade class here in NC...when I was only 10 years old...who was pulling against Carolina when they won the '57 NCAA title. Every game....Yale, Canisius, Syracuse, Michigan State & Kansas. I am the person who would never even wear light blue clothes during all the years when I was growing up. The person who walked 13 miles in disgust after the UNC/WF scoreboard game in '75. I was pulling against Carolina every game they played...against anyone....for almost 30 years before you were even born. And te very incident that you cling to in your ridiculoous (if you're serious) claim that I am a "Carolina fan"....that one time I wore that sweatshirt a couple of months after the Carl Tacy fiasco....if you would do a little thinking about it, only shows how much I disliked Carolina...not how muc I liked them. I was so upset about the Tacy situation that I wanted to make the strong possible protest that I knew how to make....and wearing that Carolina shirt....a team that I despised....was the strongest possible way to show how upset that I was.

Hopefully, you are intelligent enough to realize all of this and you are just trying to "jerk my chain", so I'll give you the benefit of the doubt on that.....because I had say that there are only a very, very few posters on this board....very, very few....if any....who have pulled against Carolina in more games than I have pulled against them.

Furthermore, with all the posters on here who are openly pulling against the WF basketball team these days, it takes one hell of a nerve to keep harping on that one time I wore a Carolina sweatshirt as a protest.

I thought you had me blocked. Glad to know we are still besties.
 
"The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the nation’s highest civilian honor, according to the White House, and is 'presented to individuals who have made especially meritorious contributions to the security or national interests of the United States, to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors.'"


Given the criteria, K's run with the US Olympic team would probably trump anything on Smith's resume. And K coached at Army as well. Both of those things mean a whole lot more to the country than what Smith did to make UNC a power.

You know Smith won a gold medal in 1976, right? K will probably get three of them though.
 
Hated Smith on the court. Off the court he really was a good guy and took chances with his career by being so forward thinking in a Southern state back in the 60s.
 
Back
Top