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This Day In Sports…March 17, 1916:
The “father of Bronco football” is born. Lyle Smith, who built Boise Junior College into a powerhouse in the late 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, is considered the man who inspired the Boise State program to grow into what it is today. His career record at BJC was 156-26-6, with five undefeated seasons, a 37-game winning streak, 51 shutouts, and the school’s original national championship—in the JC ranks in 1958.
Smith attended Moscow High School and led the Bears to state basketball championships in 1933 and 1934, and he was a star center on Moscow’s undefeated football team. He went on to play hoops and football at the school that became Idaho State—then transferred to Idaho. Smith was a two-sport star as a Vandal, too. His coaching career began in Eastern Idaho at Firth and continued in Moscow at his high school alma mater before his journey was interrupted by World War II in 1942.
When he was discharged from the Navy in 1946, Smith finished his master’s degree at Idaho—and then made a decision that would change the future of sports in the state’s capital, taking a job as assistant football coach and head basketball coach at Boise Junior College. By 1947, he was the head football coach, and off he went. Smith’s coaching run went on hiatus during part of the 1950 season and all of 1951 when he went back on active duty during the Korean War.
But in 1952, Smith picked up right where he left off. The high points amid the Broncos’ unprecedented winning were the 1949 Potato Bowl in Bakersfield, the 1950 Little Rose Bowl in Pasadena (before a crowd of 47,525), and the 1958 JC national championship game at the original Bronco Stadium, a game won 22-0 by BJC. After retiring as coach in 1967, he became Boise State’s first athletic director and served in that capacity until 1981. Smith was an old-school, hard-driving football coach, but he had a special bond with his players. Up until the very end, he knew all of them and called them by name when he greeted them.
Smith’s 100th birthday celebration on the blue turf in 2016 was pretty special. It was during spring football, and after their morning practice, the Broncos sang “Happy Birthday” to him, and coach Bryan Harsin presented him with a No. 100 Boise State jersey with his name stitched in. Smith also addressed the team. Inquiring young minds wanted to know: what had been the top moment for Smith in his almost 70 years of involvement with the school? “The Fiesta Bowl,” said Lyle. “When (Ian) Johnson crossed the goal line, I thought, ‘The Broncos have arrived.’” The late, great Lyle Smith was born 110 years ago today.
(Tom Scott hosts the Scott Slant segment during the football season on KTVB’s Sunday Sports Extra. He also anchors four sports segments each weekday on 95.3 FM KTIK and one on News/Talk KBOI. His Scott Slant column runs every Wednesday.)
