Career
“Catfish” Smith began his coaching career in rural West Texas, where in 1936 he led Carey High, a school with less than one hundred enrollment and no basketball court, to a fourth-place finish in the Texas Schoolboy state basketball tournament, including a twenty-six-game winning streak. He followed that with a 50-2 season and the state championship, back when the smallest schools competed against the largest for the coveted title. In 1943 he was called to Mount Vernon, Texas to temporarily fill a coaching vacancy.
Seven years later, with two hundred fourteen victories and over twenty titles, including district, bi-district, regional, and state crowns, he was one of the most recognized high school coaches in the state of Texas.
In 1951, East Texas State (now Texas Agricultural and Mechanical University–Commerce) named Smith their new head football coach. He guided the Lions to a 30-2-1 record, including a 29-game winning streak starting in October 1951 and ending in 1953 that brought them invitations to the 1953 and 1954 Tangerine Bowl in Orlando, Florida
Foreign over 50 years he held the National Collegiate Athletic Association record for best coaching winning percentage at.924, now held by Larry Kehres. Despite his success in the collegiate ranks, Smith chose to return to high school coaching, as he became head coach at Longview High School in 1954.
Smith guided the Longview Lobos to a 27-16-6 record in four seasons.
Smith has been inducted into four halls of fame, including the Texas Sports Hall of Fame.
