Dean Smith receiving Presidential Medal of Freedom Award

[CameronBornAndBred]

Just saw this in WRAL's "breaking news" banner, so there is no link yet. A nice recognition of an amazing career, even if he put me to sleep with the four corners.

Edit...ESPN has the news, and link. Also being awarded is Ernie Banks. (Whom I thought at first was the painter/ football player but instead is the baseball player. The artist is named Barnes.)
http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/9550520/ernie-banks-dean-smith-get-presidential-medal-freedom-award

[Atlanta Duke]

Just saw this in WRAL's "breaking news" banner, so there is no link yet. A nice recognition of an amazing career, even if he put me to sleep with the four corners.

Edit...ESPN has the news, and link. Also being awarded is Ernie Banks. (Whom I thought at first was the painter/ football player but instead is the baseball player. The artist is named Barnes.)
http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/9550520/ernie-banks-dean-smith-get-presidential-medal-freedom-award

Very well deserved - as I get older and see more of the dreck that rises to the top of the coaching profession (pro and college) I have a greater appreciation for what a class act Coach Smith was during his time at UNC.

Not too shabby a list of prior honorees:D

Past sports recipients of the award include the following: Hank Aaron, Muhammad Ali, Arthur Ashe, Earl Blaik, Paul Bryant, Roberto Clemente, Joe DiMaggio, Billie Jean King, Robert J.H. Kiphuth, Stan Musial, Jack Nicklaus, Buck O'Neil, Jesse Owens, Arnold Palmer, Richard Petty, Frank Robinson, Jackie Robinson, Bill Russell, Ted Williams and John Wooden.

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/9550520/ernie-banks-dean-smith-get-presidential-medal-freedom-award

Hope Coach K is added to that list some day soon

[killerleft]

Just saw this in WRAL's "breaking news" banner, so there is no link yet. A nice recognition of an amazing career, even if he put me to sleep with the four corners.

Edit...ESPN has the news, and link. Also being awarded is Ernie Banks. (Whom I thought at first was the painter/ football player but instead is the baseball player. The artist is named Barnes.)
http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/9550520/ernie-banks-dean-smith-get-presidential-medal-freedom-award

Good on Dean. I have a print of Ernie Barnes' painting featuring the starting five from Duke's wonderful 1986 season. My wife doesn't like it so it sits in a corner of the extra bedroom. I got mine cheap at the old South Square Mall because of some spill damage on the white margin.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/VERY-RARE-DUKE-BASKETBALL-86-LIMITED-CLOSED-EDITION-PRINT-BY-ERNIE-BARNES-/190846198191

[Bob Green]

Congratulations to Coach Smith. He is well deserving of this recognition.

[fitimi1]

I, too, offer my congratulations and can only hope that Coach Smith is somehow able to make the trip.

[Henderson]

Congratulations to Dean. Nice tribute.

[burnspbesq]

Richly deserved and long overdue.

[Billy Dat]

This is one time I am glad that someone didn't say NO to Dean.

[vick]

I, too, offer my congratulations and can only hope that Coach Smith is somehow able to make the trip.

It doesn't sound like it to me, as his family issued a statement that began: "We know he would be humbled to be in the company of President Clinton, United States senators, scientists, entertainers..."

Unfortunately (and having a father pretty far along with Alzheimer's myself), the tense there is disturbing. I too congratulate him and hope he and his family and friends can celebrate in whatever way they are able.

[Turtleboy]

Bear Bryant?

[sagegrouse]

I ran into Ernie in Chicago a couple of years ago. He was palling around with the doorman at a downtown hotel. What a character! We have an Obama choice based on Chicago roots.

sagegrouse

[Merlindevildog91]

I'm clearly no fan of the sheep, but I am glad Dean is getting this award. I just wish he had gotten it sooner while he was still able to comprehend the honor.

[Atlanta Duke]

Bear Bryant?

Leaving aside the fact he won a few football games he deserved it for this commercial;)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Hq9wfYb13U

The last line was ad libbed

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/11/opinion/11friedman.html

[subzero02]

Bear Bryant?

Alabama's delay in recruiting black players during Bryant's tenure might be a point of contention in him having received this honor.

[Turtleboy]

Alabama's delay in recruiting black players during Bryant's tenure might be a point of contention in him having received this honor.Well yeah, since it is called the Medal of Freedom, and not the Medal of Football Awesomeness.

[burnspbesq]

The man most responsible for integrating the Alabama football program was John McKay. He took an integrated USC team down there in about 1970 and whaled the tar out of the Tide.

[Atlanta Duke]

Well yeah, since it is called the Medal of Freedom, and not the Medal of Football Awesomeness.

I suppose looking back from the flawless hindsight of a half century later at times during which you may not have been alive provides a wonderful perspective, but to the extent you may be operating under the misimpression Duke was a beacon of racial tolerance during those times, the first African-American basketball player to receive a scholarship at Duke was not until Don Blackmon in 1970

http://spotlight.duke.edu/50years/african-american-firsts-at-duke-university/

To the extent you regard Bryant as King Canute trying to hold back the tide of racial equality:

In 1969, 11 African-American students at the University of Alabama filed a lawsuit against Paul (Bear) Bryant and the university for failing to recruit black scholarship athletes. In his 93-page deposition for the suit, Bryant, Alabama's iconic football coach, defended his program, saying that for three or four years he had tried to bring in black players but had lost them to other schools. Hindsight—and old-fashioned research—indicates Bryant was telling the truth

Bryant's role in sports' social revolution during the civil rights movement is the centerpiece of Breaking the Huddle: The Integration of College Football, an HBO documentary ... The engrossing one-hour show, which gives accounts of the desegregation of the ACC, SEC and Southwest conference, climaxes with Bryant's all-white 1970 Crimson Tide team playing at Birmingham's Legion Field against Southern Cal, with its strong nucleus of black players.

Breaking the Huddle does nothing to dispute the widely held belief that Bryant scheduled that game to show whites at Alabama and across the South the necessity of having black players to compete against the country's top programs.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1149825/

Dean Smith did not recruit Charlie Scott until 1966 - is that early enough to qualify for his medal?

http://blogs.lib.unc.edu/morton/index.php/2009/02/black-history-at-unc-charles-scott/

Matthew 7:1

[Newton_14]

Congrats to Dean. Well deserved. I do hate he is no longer of sound mind, but his family can take pride in the award. The disease is awful, and I have viewed it first hand with the parent of a close friend, and also an Aunt who now only recognizes her older sister, but none of her own children or grandchildren. It's painful to watch a person with the disease. Hope Dean is doing as well as possible these days.

[OZ]

We have an Obama choice based on Chicago roots.

sagegrouse

Really? Perhaps Coach K will be next.

[Turtleboy]

I suppose looking back from the flawless hindsight of a half century later at times during which you may not have been alive provides a wonderful perspective, but to the extent you may be operating under the misimpression Duke was a beacon of racial tolerance during those times, the first African-American basketball player to receive a scholarship at Duke was not until Don Blackmon in 1970And I suppose you would be better served to hold your thoughts until you have something more than your imaginings to base them on. As for Blackmon being the first on scholarship, Claudius Claiborne was recruited to Duke and enrolled in 1965, just two years after the University integrated. He was on a grant-in-aid, not an athletic scholarship, but he was on the team and his education was paid for, so I fail to see the point in claiming that Blackmon was the trailblazer.



Dean Smith did not recruit Charlie Scott until 1966 - is that early enough to qualify for his medal?At that point in his career he had been a head coach for five years. In 1971, when the first black player played for Bryant, he had been a head coach for 26 years. Apples and oranges.

This revisionist history of Bryan being some kind of icon of the civil rights movement would be laughable if it weren't so sad. The running joke ion the early 70's was Bryant commenting, as he watched a black prospect shred an opposing team's defense, "Look at that Indian run."

Your appeal to dogma as a buttress for your argument is noted, if unimpressive. You might try thinking for yourself once in a while. It's quite liberating.

[Atlanta Duke]

And I suppose you would be better served to hold your thoughts until you have something more than your imaginings to base them on. As for Blackmon being the first on scholarship, Claudius Claiborne was recruited to Duke and enrolled in 1965, just two years after the University integrated. He was on a grant-in-aid, not an athletic scholarship, but he was on the team and his education was paid for, so I fail to see the point in claiming that Blackmon was the trailblazer..

You might try thinking for yourself once in a while. It's quite liberating

The duke.edu site I linked to thought it sufficiently noteworthy to cite the first scholarship awarded as a separate landmark

http://spotlight.duke.edu/50years/african-american-firsts-at-duke-university/

I think we both think for ourselves, we just think differently on this subject.

[Edouble]

The duke.edu site I linked to thought it sufficiently noteworthy to cite the first scholarship awarded as a separate landmark

http://spotlight.duke.edu/50years/african-american-firsts-at-duke-university/

I think we both think for ourselves, we just think differently on this subject.

Way to take the high road, unlike your friend there.