Dean Edwards Smith was born on February 28, 1931, in Emporia, where he attended Emporia High School before continuing his secondary education at Topeka High School. These years in his home state established the foundation for his subsequent development as both a student and an athlete. His early schooling carried him from Emporia through Topeka and eventually to the collegiate level.

Smith pursued his college education and athletic career at the University of Kansas, where he played basketball and won a national championship in 1952 playing for coach Phog Allen. His time at Kansas identified him not only as a basketball player but also, in the record of his formation, as an engineer, reflecting the range of his academic work during those years.

Smith's coaching career began in 1961 at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, which became his professional home for the next 36 years. Over the course of that tenure, which concluded in 1997, his program won two national championships and appeared in 11 Final Fours. When he retired, his record stood at 879 victories. His sustained presence in Chapel Hill made that city as central to his professional life as Kansas had been to his early years.

The honors Smith received were substantial. He was inducted into the FIBA Hall of Fame and recognized by the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame. He received the North Carolina Award for Public Service, the Arthur Ashe Courage Award, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Dean Edwards Smith died on February 7, 2015, in Chapel Hill, the place where he had coached throughout the full span of his 36-year career.