The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Smart delivers UT History Department commencement address
05.20.2016 | Men's Basketball
Men’s Basketball coach Shaka Smart encouraged graduates to write their personal history chapter with appreciation, enthusiasm and accountability.
WATCH Shaka Smart's full commencement address
As a coach and teacher, mentor and molder to young men and their talents, Texas Men's Basketball coach Shaka Smart is expected to have all the answers.
The curious thing, though, is that Smart gets his answers by asking a lot of questions.
Smart recently encountered national champion swimmer Will Licon during lunch at the athletics dining hall and within five minutes, broke through the casual conversation to grill the Olympic-caliber breast stroke specialist about training and discipline. Smart quickly observed that Licon's success is due in large part to his ability to make decisions that are systemically aligned with the outcome he hopes to create.
"I love learning from people like Will," Smart says.
Smart delivered the commencement address on Friday morning for The University of Texas department of history. Like the gathering of students inside Hogg Auditorium, Smart, too, earned a history degree. His was just handed out 17 years ago from Kenyon College. But standing on the stage today, charged to deliver nuggets of wisdom in no more than 15 minutes of podium prose, Smart showed that he can still relate to those wearing caps and gowns.
Because the teacher remains a student.
"Begin with the end in mind," Smart told the graduates, "The end as in the goal – what you want to accomplish. The more specific you can be, the better, and then you can decide exactly what it will take to get you there."
Smart explained three of the five core values of his Texas Basketball program – appreciation, enthusiasm and accountability.
When you view the present as a gift, it's easy to make the most of each opportunity.
"I believe it's impossible to feel a deep sense of gratitude and simultaneously feel sorry for yourself," Smart said.
As a successful history major at Kenyon College – Smart was named the North Atlantic Conference Scholar Athlete of the Year – many of his professors believed his path was to continue in academia, that he should pursue an advanced degree and teach.
Smart was intent on the teaching part, but he knew his classroom would include a basketball court. Not long after graduation, he took a job at a one-stoplight town in Pennsylvania that paid him enough money to afford a foot-long sub sandwich each day, which he divided between lunch and dinner. His apartment caused friends and family to "cringe with pity and bewilderment."
"I was headed somewhere they couldn't see," Smart said. "I loved my life and the opportunity I had and the promise of the future I was too naïve to know wasn't promised."
Smart says enthusiasm is one of his core values because he enjoys being around people who are "switched on."
"The world needs people who have come alive," Smart said, quoting author and civil rights leader Howard Thurman.
In order to pursue those dreams without apology, however, an individual needs accountability. It's that quality that radiated from Licon during their lunch conversation. Smart was mystified by the idea of pursuing a goal where mere hundredths of seconds determine winning and losing. Daily focus and discipline are mandatory.
Licon told Smart, "I see my choices clearly, and I choose to move forward one step at a time, even when I'm uncomfortable."
Smart encouraged the graduates to visualize themselves in five or 10 years. What are you doing? Who are you with? Where do you live?
With a clear picture of the end in mind, it's easier to take a proprietary view of choices, to be intentional with each moment. Smart teaches that lesson by living it. As a visible head coach for a premier university, distractions exist. In the short walk from basketball offices inside Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium to Garrison Hall, where he joined gathered dignitaries including former UT Austin President Bill Powers for the graduation processional, Smart was stopped several times by groups of students asking for photos and once by a professor seeking autographs.
Smart humbly – and enthusiastically – obliged every request, then quickly returned his focus to his prepared speech, reading over the typed pages in a thin black binder.
The teacher remains a student.
"You will create your future and your history in the present," Smart said.
