Red Smith (American football)
| Cumberland Bulldogs | |
|---|---|
| Position | Center |
| Class | Graduate |
| Personal information | |
| Height | 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m) |
| Career history | |
| College | Cumberland (1903–1905) |
| High school | Mooney School |
| Career highlights and awards | |
| |
Frank D. "Red" Smith was a college football player.
Early years
[edit]He attended preparatory school at Mooney School in Franklin, Tennessee along with Ed Hamilton and Frank Kyle.[1]
Cumberland
[edit]Smith was a prominent center for the Cumberland Bulldogs of Cumberland University in Lebanon, Tennessee, inducted into the Cumberland Sports Hall of Fame in 1978.[2]
1903
[edit]At Cumberland he was a member of Pi Kappa Alpha, praised for his athleticism along with M. O. Bridges.[3] Smith, M. O. Bridges, and M. L. Bridges helped lead Cumberland to a share of the 1903 Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association (SIAA) title. Smith was selected All-Southern.[4] Cumberland coach A. L. Phillips said Smith was the "only man he ever saw who has reduced football to a science."[3] That year, Cumberland defeated Vanderbilt and tied coach John Heisman's Clemson Tigers football team at the end of the year in the game billed as the "SIAA championship game" in Montgomery, Alabama on Thanksgiving Day. Cumberland rushed out to an early 11 to 0 lead. Wiley Lee Umphlett in Creating the Big Game: John W. Heisman and the Invention of American Football writes, "During the first half, Clemson was never really in the game due mainly to formidable line play of the Bridges brothers–giants in their day at 6 feet 4 inches–and a big center named "Red" Smith, was all over the field backing up the Cumberland line on defense. Clemson had been outweighed before, but certainly not like this."[5]
1904
[edit]He was captain of its 1904 team.
1905
[edit]Smith was again selected All-Southern in 1905.
References
[edit]- ^ Mooney, Russell E.; Burke, Marianne Turpin (1964). A Mooney genealogy and miscellany with some allied lines. p. 75.
- ^ "Cumberland Sports Hall of Fame".
- ^ a b Verner M. Jones (1904). "The Editor's Desk". The Kappa Alpha Journal. 21 (5): 639.
- ^ "Sadler Is Made Captain of All-Southern Team". Atlanta Constitution. November 29, 1903.
- ^ Wiley Lee Umphlett (1992). Creating the Big Game: John W. Heisman and the Invention of American Football. p. 67. ISBN 9780313284045.