DINNER ON THE DEAN!
Deceased coach sends each varsity player $200 for meal
DEAN SMITH couldn’t buy his players a meal while he was coaching at North Carolina, but he’s picking up the tab now.
Among the coach’s last wishes was for the executor of his trust to issue $200 checks to every varsity player he coached over his 36 seasons as the men’s basketball coach in Chapel Hill. The trustee of Smith’s estate said that Smith, who died in February at age 83, wanted his players to enjoy a night out on coach’s dime.
“Each player was important and special to Coach Smith, and when he prepared his state plan, Coach wanted to reach out to each of his lettermen,” Tim Breedlove of the firm Miller, McNeish & Breedlove wrote in the letter, which was circulated on Twitter. The firm confirmed the letter’s authenticity to the Daily News.
“Accordingly, Coach directed that following his passing each letterman be sent a two hundred dollar check with the message ‘enjoy a dinner out compliments of Coach Dean Smith.’ ”
Breedlove told The News that he sent about 180 letters and tracked down the players with the help of the school’s basketball office. He said that his firm’s relationship with Smith began “in the early 1980s” and stressed that the gesture only reinforces the image of Smith as a giving man. “It’s certainly a special thing,” Breedlove said of stipulation in the will. “It’s just one more indication of his thoughtfulness and his consideration for his players.
“I think a lot has already been said about him, all of the kind remarks and the great comments about him,” Breedlove said. “All I can say is, they’re real.”
“(The gift) was given to those who earned a varsity letter, which is something each coach determines on an annual basis,” Steve Kirschner, senior associate athletic director at North Carolina, told The News. “There is no specific criteria for determining whether someone letters. It is up to the coach’s discretion.”
While $200 is a drop in the bucket for plenty of his former players − what’s Michael Jordan going to do with $200? That isn’t even enough for him to buy the latest pair of Jordans − there are surely others who’ll appreciate a nice night out courtesy of coach.