John G. Smith

Born in Tipton, Oklahoma, to Will and Margie Smith, he attended its public schools. Smith enlisted in the U.S. Navy during World War II as a teenager and served on PT boats in the Pacific. He returned to Oklahoma to attend college at Central State in Edmond and lettered in four sports.

Smith was a coach at Capital Hill High School in Oklahoma City and then returned to his alma mater in Edmond in 1958 as head coach in basketball and baseball at the NAIA level, and an assistant in football.

Idaho

Smith moved his family to southwestern Idaho sight unseen in 1962 and coached at Caldwell High School before moving north to the Palouse at Moscow. He was hired at the University of Idaho in 1965 as an assistant coach in football, leading the defensive line under newly-promoted head coach Steve Musseau.

In September 1966, Wayne Anderson was promoted to head basketball coach, and stepped down after nine seasons as head baseball coach. In late November, Smith was named head baseball coach, which included assistant coaching in basketball, and he stepped away from the football program after two seasons. The Vandals had won the first Big Sky baseball title in 1964 and again in 1966, when they were invited to the NCAA postseason for the first time and advanced to the regional finals.

In Smith's first season in 1967, Idaho repeated as champions, and he was the conference coach of the year. The 1969 team won another Big Sky title and advanced to the regional finals, falling to eventual national champion Arizona State.

The Big Sky discontinued baseball (and four other sports) after 1974, and Idaho moved to the new Northern Pacific Conference (NorPac) for the 1975 season. Citing budget contraints in 1980, Idaho (and Boise State) dropped the sport, and Smith continued in the UI athletic department for the next seven years as equipment manager.

When John L. Smith (b.1948) arrived on campus as an assistant football coach in 1982, both began using their middle initial to avoid confusion.

Smith married Rosalie Tucker in 1944 and they had three sons. The eldest, Gregg (b.1946), was a longtime assistant football coach under Dennis Erickson, from Idaho in 1982 through 2011 at Arizona State.

Smith was known for his deadpan dry wit and was often the master of ceremonies for athletic department functions. He was an avid fisherman and enjoyed golf. Smith and his wife continued to reside in Moscow following his retirement from the university in 1987.

Retired for over a decade, Smith contracted pneumonia and died from complications at age 73 at Sacred Heart Hospital in Spokane; he was buried at the city cemetery in Moscow, Idaho.