The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
A Mother's Day message: Greg Smith
05.09.2010 | Football
May 9, 2010
Hey Longhorns fans and Happy Mother's Day,
My mom has been a huge influence to me over the course of my life. She's there in every aspect supporting me and acting as a friend, a guide, and a caretaker. She has instilled the morals, value and culture that have built the foundation of my personality and personal characteristics. She's there for me for absolutely anything. I can call and talk to her about school, football, or anything and she keeps my head straight and helps me become successful. My mom is what we like to refer to as "small and mighty." She is a beautiful, strong, and intelligent mom who has a huge heart.
Growing up, my mom instilled a lot of values and morals. First, she created a necessity for growing up as a Christian. She also stressed the importance of an education and where it can get you in life. My favorite quality is the work ethic she taught me. She showed me you do everything to its fullest and to the best of your ability because anything less is cheating yourself and others.
That's true for anything you do in life, including athletics, where she always challenges me to work hard, set goals, and achieve those goals. When I was growing up she would play basketball with me, holding a broom as she played so she could contest my shots. My mom and dad also provided a childhood for me where if I wanted to play a sport, no matter what it was, they would support me in it as long as I tried my best every time. We have driven all over the country for athletics and even overseas, and they didn't question any of my athletic endeavors.
She brought up me and my sister in house that was loving, slightly strict, but encouraging in almost anything we wanted to try. She stressed working for what you want, giving 110 percent, and the idea that, "if you want to soar with the eagles, you can't always hoot with the owls," meaning if you want to be successful in the day, you can't always be out late.

As strong and supportive as she is, she also has her lighter side. One of my favorite memories growing up was in high school when she showed up at a pep rally with a few moms dressed up as an '80s rocker, which was funny and embarrassing. Then just today we laughed about her texting skills and her need to abbreviate everything to the point where my sister and I have to decode what she really wants to say. An example is her recent finding that "LOL" means laugh out loud, not lots of love, an abbreviation that was pretty confusing when texting about serious things.
Finally, my mom is my biggest fan, as are all the mothers of players on this team with their sons. A lot of times, football is correlated more with players' fathers, but it should be known that moms are equally important. In fact, the majority of football players will openly admit they're momma's boys, a trait that seems to go along with being an athlete. So to my mom and all moms, on behalf of Texas football, thank you for what you do.
Happy Mother's Day,
Greg
