Many thanks from this Tar Heel for your editorial of Oct. 13 on the retirement of North Carolina basketball coach Dean Smith, and the character traits he shares with Michael Jordan.
Those mutual interests go well beyond the basketball court. The Jordan family is the founding benefactor of UNC’s Jordan Institute for the Family, which engages in scholarly research in family life. Coach and Mrs. Smith have long been generous supporters of related work in human development.
A minor point: Although Michael’s “shot heard `round the world” gave Coach Smith his first national championship in 1983, it was not Carolina’s first. That came in 1957 to cap an undefeated season, no less, against Kansas and Wilt Chamberlain in triple overtime. The winning coach was Frank Maguire, who subsequently hired as his assistant young Dean Smith.
