death_date death_place coach_years birth_place coach_team coach_sport cfbdwid sport birth_date article_title name
5 august 2012 fayetteville , north carolina 1946 -- 1950 1959 -- 1963 1963 -- 1972 micro , north carolina campbell east carolina east carolina football basketball baseball 6136 football , basketball , baseball 27 may 1917 earl smith -lrb- coach -rrb-
 earl smith
earl smith -lrb- coach -rrb-

norman earl smith -lrb- may 27 , 1917 -- august 5 , 2012 -rrb- was an american coach of many sports at campbell university and also a basketball and baseball coach at east carolina university .
born in micro , north carolina , smith attended east carolina and participated in baseball , basketball , and football from his sophomore year through his senior year .
he resided in fayetteville , north carolina until his death on august 5 , 2012 .
he graduated in 1939 and later became a football , basketball , baseball , tennis and cross country coach at campbell university .
under smith 's guidance , campbell won three straight north carolina junior college football championships -lrb- 1946 -- 48 -rrb- .
he also led the 1948 -- 49 and 1951 -- 52 basketball teams an overall record of 29 -- 20 including the junior college national tournament in hutchinson , kansas .
in 1959 smith returned to ecu to become head coach of the pirates basketball team .
he led the team to a record of 53 -- 40 in his four years of coaching .
in 1963 , after finishing his basketball coaching career , smith turned to the ecu baseball team .
he led them to a very impressive record of 185 -- 103 -- 2 in nine years .
of those 186 victories , the team finished first place in the southern conference in four consecutive years -lrb- 1966 -- 70 -rrb- .
smith has baseball 's third highest winning percentage at .642 .
he was inducted into the pirate hall of fame in 1977 , and the campbell university athletics hall of fame in april 1986 .
he later became a professional baseball scout for the san diego padres .
he died at cape fear valley medical center in 2012 .
