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​Remembering Coach Dean Smith and His Kansas Connections

By Greg Echlin
Published February 10, 2015 at 3:02 PM CST
A portrait of Dean Smith (left) from 1984 and Smith as a KU basketball player. He was on the 1949-1953 teams. (Photos via KU University Archives)
A portrait of Dean Smith (left) from 1984 and Smith as a KU basketball player. He was on the 1949-1953 teams. (Photos via KU University Archives)

Former North Carolina basketball coach Dean Smith died over the weekend at the age of 83. Though his only head coaching job was with the Tar Heels in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Smith never forgot his connections to Kansas, where he was born and raised. KPR’s Greg Echlin has more.
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Local News Coach Dean SmithUNC Tar HeelsKU JayhawksEmporiaTopeka High School
Greg Echlin
Greg Echlin is the sports reporter for KPR and KCUR. Ever since he set foot on the baseball diamond at Fernwood Park on Chicago's South Side, Greg Echlin began a love affair with the world of sports. After graduating from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, he worked as a TV sports anchor and a radio sportscaster in Salina, Kansas. He moved to Kansas City in 1984 and has been there since covering sports. Through the years, he has covered multiple Super Bowls, Final Fours and Major League Baseball's World Series and All-Star games. With his high metabolism rate, Greg is able to enjoy a good meal and stay slim when he's not running around on the sports scene. He loves desserts, even making them. Cheesecakes, pies and parfaits are the most common around the Echlin household.
See stories by Greg Echlin