The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Track & Field All-American Dean Smith passes away
08.09.2023 | Track & Field / Cross Country
Smith was a three-time All-American and a member of the Texas Athletics, Texas Sports and Southwest Conference Hall of Fame.
AUSTIN, Texas – A Texas Track & Field legend, Dean Smith passed away on June 24. He was 91 years old.
Smith was one of the pioneers of the Texas track team as a member of UT's Southwestern Conference team championships in both 1954 and 1955. Smith was the Longhorns first Olympic medal winner when he ran the opening leg of the 4x100-meter relay at the 1952 Helsinki Games where Team USA won the gold. During the same Olympics, Smith finished fourth in the 100-meter dash by a photo-finish time of 10.4 seconds. It is still known to be one of the closest races in Olympic history.
The Breckenridge, Texas native was a seven-time SWC individual event and relay champion – winning the 100-yard dash at the 1952, '54 and '55 SWC meets. During the 1955 season, Smith was part of the world record-setting 440-yard relay team and went on to become a three-time All-American during his time in Austin.
After his time on the Forty Acres, Smith went on serve two years in the Army and later played football for the Los Angeles Rams – playing in scrimmages and exhibition games. When he was traded to the Pittsburgh Steelers, Smith decided to head to Hollywood.
He took his talents to the big screen where he was a stuntman and actor from 1957 through the 1990's, where he appeared in more than 200 films. He made his first stuntman appearance in "The Alamo" where he was one of 31 stuntmen and went on to double for leading characters like Dale Robertson, Robert Redford and John Wayne. His talents could be seen in Oscar-winning Westerns like True Grit and How the West Was Won.
His talents also saw him win the amateur rodeo championships for bareback bronco riding and calf roping and is an honorary member of the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association.
He lead a philanthropic life as well, putting together the Dean Smith Celebrity Rodeo benefiting the Cowboy Cancer Crusade tribute to Ben Johnson, the Dean Smith Celebrity Rodeo to benefit the John Wayne Cancer Institute honoring John Wayne and the Singing Cowboys in Abilene, Texas. He was later honored with the "Duke" award for his contributions to cancer research by the John Wayne Cancer Institute.
"He was a true Texas cowboy and gentleman who loved his Longhorns and his ranch," Preston Smith, a three-time Longhorn conference champion in the 60's said. "A real down to earth hero to those of us who knew him."
In 1992, Smith returned to Texas to the ranch he grew up on in the northeast of Breckenridge and raided Longhorn cattle for many years.
Among all his accolades, Smith was inducted into the Texas Athletics Hall of Honor in 1980, the Texas Sports Hall of Fame in 1985, the Texas Rodeo Cowboy Hall of Fame in 2006, the Southwest Conference Hall of Fame in 2013 and the Texas Track and Field Coaches Association Hall of Fame.
