William G. (Billy) Smith
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Sport:
Track & Field |
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Year
Graduated: 1954 |
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Year
Inducted: 1978 |
A nationally-ranked middle-distance runner, William G. "Billy"
Smith set several Boston Unviversity indoor and outdoor records
during his undergraduate career at the University, most of
which stood for many years until they were broken by his "pupils."
Simtty ran everything from the 440 to the mile for Hall of
Famer Doug Raymond and could be counted to score in every
meet. He represented the Terriers at all of the national meets,
including the Milrose Games, Philadelphia Enquirer Meet, the
New York and Boston K. of C. meets, the Penn Relays, IC4A's
and the Nationals. He still held the Boston Garden record
in the Bingham 880 at the time of his induction and was twice
selected to represent the United States on the national team.
Following graduation, Billy launched his career in coaching,
and for 15 years served as an assistant coach and then head
track coach at Bsoton University before turningover the reigns
to David Hemery in 1976. Smith's ability for recognizing and
developing track talent in internationally known and respected.
His most "famous" protege is Hall of Famer David
Hemery, who Smith discovered, recruited and later developed
into the gold medal winner and world record holder in the
400-meter intermediate hurdles at the 1968 Olympic games.
Hemery completed his set of Olympic medals four years later
when he won silver and bronze medals at Munich.
