I was sad to learn recently that former North Carolina basketball coach Dean Smith, 79, was suffering from memory loss.

Folks have been throwing the "A" word around, and it's quite possible the memory loss is a symptom of Alzheimer's Disease. It's sad, but more because if you live long enough, you have all sorts of indignities visited upon you before you die.

Smith probably isn't the greatest college basketball coach ever -- it's tough to argue with the late John Wooden on that score -- but he has more victories than any other coach in NCAA Division I, and I never met anyone in nearly 20 years of covering sports who was any classier an individual.

<a href="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/images.jpg"><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-555" title="images" src="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/images.jpg" alt="" width="156" height="209" /></a>He never took credit for his success, crediting his players first and always. Indeed, when UNC named its new basketball field house after him, he protested that it would have been better to name it after the players.

I came into contact with him several times when I worked in the Carolinas, but the one time that really stayed with me was a personal encounter I had with him during the NCAA sub-regionals in 1986 at Weber State.

It was Friday, the day between the first-round games and the second-rounders, and the four teams that had won on the first day were meeting the media in press conferences. One of the big topics that year was the fact that UNC's senior class that year was the first one under Smith that had yet to reach a Final Four.

I asked the question of Brad Daugherty. "Are you guys feeling any additional pressure from all the talk about that?"

Smith jumped in and interrupted. "I don't think that's a fair question," he said. "How many other teams here have been to the Final Four the last three years?"

I didn't need to point out that Louisville's Denny Crum, whose team would win the title that year, had been there during that time span. The moment had passed and the question didn't get answered.

The Tar Heels won their Saturday game to advance to the next weekend, and the question didn't come up in the post-game press conference. But as I was walking off to write my story, someone came up to me.

"I owe you an apology," Dean Smith said.

I was stunned. "Coach, you don't owe me anything."

"No," he said. "I do. The question you asked yesterday was a fair one, but I've been really worried about these kids feeling all that pressure, so I interrupted you. I want to apologize for that."

I thanked him. We shook hands and he returned to his team.

It wasn't the last time I ever saw Smith. In 1989 I was covering the University of Nevada Reno, and we had a road trip to play North Carolina at the Dean E. Smith Center in Chapel Hill, N.C. Carolina won easily, of course, but I spent my post-game time in the UNR locker room and didn't talk to the legendary coach.

I doubt he would have remembered our encounter.

I, on the other hand, have never forgotten it.

Godspeed, Coach Smith.