Kenneth Spencer Research Library

Each week we’ll be posting a photograph from University Archives that shows a scene from KU’s past. We’ve also scanned more than 1,700 images from KU’s University Archives and made them available online; be sure to check them out!

We join others around the country in remembering legendary University of North Carolina basketball coach Dean Smith, who passed away at his home in Chapel Hill on February 7.

Portrait of Dean Smith as a member of the “Cage Team” (basketball
squad) in the Jayhawker yearbook, Winter 1953. University Archives.
Call Number: UA Ser 69/1 1953 Winter. Click image to enlarge.

Smith was an Emporia, Kansas, native who graduated from Topeka High School before attending the University of Kansas from 1949 to 1953, graduating with a Bachelor of Science in Education. During his time on KU’s varsity basketball squad, Smith played under Coach Phog Allen and was part of a team that won the national championship in 1952 and was an NCAA tournament finalist in 1953. Smith also played freshman football and varsity baseball while at KU, was a member of the Air Force ROTC detachment and the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity, and participated in K-Club and Sasnak.

Dean Smith (#22, far right) in a game against Nebraska State, 1952-1953. University Archives Photos.
Call Number: RG 66/13 Dean Smith: Athletic Department: Basketball: Players (Photos).
Click image to enlarge (redirect to Spencer’s digital collections).

Portrait of the basketball team after a game, 1953. Dean Smith is in the middle,
at Coach Phog Allen’s right shoulder. University Archives Photos.
Call Number: RG 66/13 Dean Smith: Athletic Department: Basketball: Players (Photos).
Click image to enlarge (redirect to Spencer’s digital collections).

Caitlin Donnelly
Head of Public Services

Melissa Kleinschmidt, Megan Sims, and Abbey Ulrich
Public Services Student Assistants