Irving Thomas "Tom" Smith

Irving Thomas “Tom” Smith, a retired Greenwich physical education teacher who played on the storied Penn State football team that won the 1948 Cotton Bowl and who went on to six-decade long career in sports, including as a junior high school football coach, offensive line coach on the collegiate level and assistant commissioner of a semi-pro league in Florida, died Nov. 3 in Stamford, Conn. He was 100.

Coach Smith, as he was affectionately called by his players and students, began his career in 1949 as a PE teacher for the Greenwich School System just as the curriculum to develop physical, social and cognitive skills through recreational activities began to evolve.

He was assigned to Greenwich’s Central Junior High School, where he unlocked the gym doors hours before the school’s opening bell to play 3-on-3 basketball games with the students. He coached the 9th grade football team as well, and some of his players, highly motivated and skilled in blocking techniques, caught the eye of Dave Rice, then head coach of the varsity high school football team.

Coach Smith prepared his players so well that Rice asked him to join his coaching staff when Rice became head football coach at Western Connecticut State College in the 1970s. When Rice left to coach at Fordham University in New York in the 1980s, Coach Smith went with him as the O-line coach.

“Tom’s key strength was his teaching ability,” said Rice. “He was a master of getting the best out of his players and that’s why he was always with me. His players were very loyal. They followed his instructions to the letter and they were the kind of kids who just didn’t want to disappoint him.”

Coach Smith, who emphasized rigorous physical training and repetitive practice drills to hone technique, was a standout player in his own right. He was an offensive lineman on one of Penn State’s most important team in school history-the 1947-48 squad that tied SMU 13-13 in the 1948 Cotton Bowl Classic in Dallas.

At the time, Penn State had two black players on the team-Dennie Hoggard and Wally Triplett, who caught the game-tying touchdown for the Nittany Lions. The game marked the first time a team with black players competed in Texas against a team from a segregated university.

Coach Smith was born on Jan. 2, 1922 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City, one of three children of Emory Meurice Smith and Emma Smith. He played football at Erasmus Hall High School in New York before enlisting in the Marine Corps with three friends during World War II.

He was stationed in Guadalcanal in the South Pacific and Bougainville.

He graduated from Penn State in 1949 and received a master’s degree in education from Columbia Teachers College in 1956.

In 2007, he was inducted into the All American Football Foundation for his contributions to the sport. In addition to his coaching, he worked for Florida International University as an academic advisor for athletes and served as an assistant commissioner for the Southern State Football League, a semi-pro organization in Florida.

Tom is survived by his loving wife of 71 years, Yvonne (nee Niess); his children, Michelle Meth and Suzanne Guerin; his four grandchildren, Danielle Kneppers, Jacqueline Meth, and Jack and Madeleine Guerin; one great-grandson, Jonah; and many nieces and nephews.

In lieu of flowers, please consider making a gift in memory of Tom to the Tom Smith Annual “Go Tough” Athletic Scholarship - to benefit a a Greenwich athlete who has overcome adversity.

Greenwich Scholarship Association

P.O. Box 4627

Greenwich, CT 06831

Memo: Tom Smith