Three Goodbyes-Dean Smith,Ed Sabol and Bob Simon

I wrote last night about the passing of a favorite of mine in Jerry Tarkanian, but among three passings that I'll note today was the man that I enjoyed disliking most (next to Bo Schembechler) in college sports growing up.

I always respected Dean Smith, but I couldn't stand him.
He built the flagship program in the ACC when I was growing up and defended against all challengers.
Norm Sloan and Jim Valvano at N.C. State, Lefty Driesell at Maryland, Bill Foster, and later Mike Krzyzewski at Duke and Terry Holland at Virginia all made their runs at toppling Smith and none quite pulled it off.
Each might have had the edge for a season or two like Sloan's three years run with David Thompson, Holland with Ralph Sampson, etc, but in the end, it was still the Heels standing tall...

Smith was always whining about something and for a coach that most looked at as gentlemanly was one of the best referee baiters in the game, but he was the coach that every team wanted to beat.
Every team in the ACC circled the Carolina game as the game on the home schedule that everyone wanted to see, so every game that UNC played they were playing a team that looked at them as a rival.

Smith usually had the more talented teams and he was responsible for the NCAA bringing the shot clock to college basketball with his sleep-inducing, but very effective Four Corners to close out games, but on occasions used it against similarly talented teams.
The 1982 ACC tournament final vs Virginia and Ralph Sampson saw Smith finish the Cavaliers off with a two-point lead over the last seven minutes of the game with the four corners, but driving a national television audience to boredom and spurring the change with the shot clock.
Smith was occasionally wrong with the four corners, having his 1977 Heels roaring back against Marquette and went into the corners, blew all momentum, and lost the title contest.

Dean Smith will be remembered by many for victories, but to me-I'll remember him most for tons of crazy wins over my beloved Terrapins, that damn four corners and being my most despised figure in college basketball.
After all, in sports-the dislike is often just as important as the love.....

Two other passings of note as well occurred recently that we wanted to mention along with Dean Smith...

Ed Sabol, the founder of NFL Films and a member of the football hall of fame passed away at the age of  98.
Sabol is the person that came up with the idea of filming all the NFL games, starting the company, and running the business end.
Steve Sabol might have been the creative genius, but Ed Sabol certainly was a major part of the success of NFL Films.

Bob Simon, recently of 60 minutes, passed away in an automobile accident at the age of 73.
Simon was an award-winning reporter for CBS for over 40 years, winning numerous awards for various pieces of journalism.
Simon was also noted for spending 40 days in an Iraqi prison during the Gulf War after being captured and his resulting book 40 days.
Simon also was often criticized for various groups for a reported bias against the state of Israel, which was interesting as Simon was Jewish himself...