Bill Guthridge
Bill Guthridge (1937-2015)
Last position: Head men’s basketball coach
Teams coached: North Carolina Tar Heels
North Carolina record: 80-28 (.741)
Overall record: 80-28 (.741)
Career Accomplishments:
- NCAA National Championships: 0
- NCAA Tournament Appearances: 3 (1998, 1999, 2000)
- NCAA Tournament Sweet Sixteen: 2 (1998, 2000)
- NCAA Tournament Final Four: 2 (1998, 2000)
- NIT Championships: 0
- NIT Appearances: 0
- ACC Tournament Champion: 1 (1998)
Awards:
- Naismith Coach of the Year: 1 (1998)
- NABC Coach of the Year: 1 (1998)
- Sporting News Coach of the Year: 1 (1998)
- ACC Coach of the Year: 1 (1998)
Coaching Career (head coach, unless noted):
| 1997-2000 | North Carolina |
| 1967-1997 | North Carolina (asst) |
| 1962-1967 | Kansas State (asst) |
Bill Guthridge Facts
- William Wallace Guthridge
- Born July 27, 1937
- Died May 12, 2015
- Hometown: Parsons, Kansas
- Alma Mater: Kansas State University (BS, 1960 & MA, 1963)
- The Kansas native played guard at K-State under Hall of Fame head coach Tex Winter
- Started coaching right away after earning his bachelors, spending two seasons at Scott City HS (KS)
- Returned to Manhattan in 1962, spending the next five seasons as one of Winter‘s assistants; also coached golf at KSU
- Joined fellow Kansas native Dean Smith‘s staff at North Carolina in 1967, serving as his assistant for the next 30 years
- Tenure included ten trips to the Final Four and two National Championship titles
- Courted to become a head coach elsewhere many times as Smith‘s top assistant but never left; nearly left for Arkansas in 1974 and for Penn State in 1978
- Coached under Smith at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, helping lead Team USA to a gold medal
- Took over as the Tar Heels’ head coach in 1997 following Smith’s retirement, winning 34 games in his first season and making a run to the 1998 Final Four; Guthridge won several Coach of the Year awards that season
- Spent just three years as head coach before retiring in 2000 following his second Final Four trip in three years
- The 1997-98 team featured future NBA players Antawn Jamison, Vince Carter, Brendan Haywood and Shammond Williams; Guthridge would later coach future NFL Pro Bowler Julius Peppers, who walked on to the basketball team after the football season was over
- Along with his wife, Leesie, had two sons and one daughter
Bill Guthridge Coaching Tree
- Jason Capel (Appalachian State)