Northwestern president awards ‘Nth Degree’ to Peabody’s legendary Charles Smith

January 8, 2025

By Doug Ireland

NATCHITOCHES - Peabody Magnet's boys basketball team scored a signature win Jan. 3 in front of a jammed gymnasium on campus, outlasting Alexandria Senior High 65-55 in a matchup of two of Cenla's strongest teams.

It was also a showcase in a pregame ceremony as Northwestern State University President James T. "Jimmy" Genovese presented the university's prestigious Nth Degree to Peabody coach Charles Smith, who decades before earned a master's degree in education from Northwestern.

Smith, 75, was inducted in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in October in Springfield, Mass., the greatest honor issued for worldwide participants in the sport. He is the fifth-winningest coach in the history of high school basketball, with Friday's victory upping his total to 1,223 career wins.

The Nth Degree is a special honor conferred by Northwestern since the 1960s that recognizes individuals who have gone the extra mile in meritorious service to the university or the community. It is awarded only occasionally and Smith's honor was the first presented by Genovese since he became the university's president Aug. 5.

Participating in the ceremony were Mike McConathy, the winningest college basketball coach in state history, and Doug Ireland, the chairman of the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame, which inducted Smith in 2019. McConathy and Ireland are special assistants to Genovese at Northwestern.

Smith's Nth Degree not only resulted from his basketball success, but for his educational impact on generations of students at Peabody and in Rapides Parish, and for his strongly positive community influence, said Genovese.

In his remarks to the crowd, Genovese pointed out that Smith's induction in the Naismith Basketball Hall officially confirmed his status in the history of the game, and put him in a peer group of coaches including UCLA's John Wooden, Georgetown's John Thompson, North Carolina State's Jim Valvano and other iconic figures in basketball through the 130-year history of the sport.

"It's my honor to present Coach Smith with this award because he represents the best of us, and inspires all of us," said Genovese. "We are proud he is an alumnus of Northwestern and we are thankful he has served his community, Peabody High School and the entire state humbly and with great distinction during more than 50 years in education."

Coach Smith has been a role model to thousands of Peabody students, and 80-plus basketball scholarship recipients, with his former players including an executive vice president of a Fortune 500 company, pilots, doctors, attorneys, engineers, business owners, educators, coaches and two NBA players.

His Warhorses won the ninth state championship under his leadership last March, and are 16-1 this season.

He came to Peabody in 1974 as a math teacher - and remains in that role. He was an assistant coach, helping the Warhorses win the first state title in school history, before taking over the head coaching role in 1984. He earned his undergraduate degree from Paul Quinn University and after beginning his teaching and coaching career, completed his master's at Northwestern.

Scanning the list of previous Basketball Hall inductees are superstars like Shaquille O'Neal, Bill Russell, Pete Maravich, Julius Erving, Michael Jordan, Cheryl Miller, Anne Meyers, Bob Cousy, Karl Malone and Bob Pettit - not to mention the game's greatest coaches from all levels, like Red Auerbach, Henry Iba, Pat Summit, Kim Mulkey, Leon Barmore, Lenny Wilkins, Morgan Wooten and Adolph Rupp along with Thompson, Wooden and Valvano.

Among those joining Smith in the Basketball Hall's 2024 induction class were Vince Carter and another Louisiana Sports Hall of Famer, Baton Rouge native and LSU great Seimone Augustus.

His induction in Springfield came in Smith's first year of consideration. As a high school basketball coach, he was chosen from a subset that previously had only four representatives among the 450 people enshrined since 1959. Smith has won 86 percent of his games, losing only 215.

Such is his stature that the gymnasium at Peabody now carries his name - Charles Smith's Emerald Palace.

Pictured: Peabody Magnet boys basketball coach and math teacher Charles Smith (holding award) was joined by, from left, retired Northwestern State basketball coach Mike McConathy, NSU president James T. "Jimmy" Genovese and Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame chairman Doug Ireland at a pregame ceremony Jan. 3 when Genovese presented Smith with the university's prestigious Nth Degree.

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