Wrestling legend Bill Smith honored

By Phil Monson
Wrestling fans in the Humboldt gym received an extra treat prior to the start of a home quad in the Wildcat gym on Dec. 20.
Wrestling legend Bill Smith, who now resides in Humboldt, was introduced to the crowd before the start of the meet, which included No. 1 ranked (Class 2A) New Hampton, Alta-Aurelia and Council Bluffs Thomas Jefferson.
Smith, 88, is the oldest living Olympic medalist. He won the gold medal wrestling for Team USA at 160.5 pounds in the 1952 Helsinki Olympic Games. It was a crowning achievement for Smith, who never lost a match wrestling at Iowa Teacher’s College, now Northern Iowa. He won two National Collegiate championships and three Amateur Athletic Union titles (1949-51).
Smith went on to a long and successful coaching career at various levels
“Believe it or not, this is not the first time Thomas Jefferson High came up to this area to wrestle,” said Smith, a 1947 graduate of Council Bluffs Thomas Jefferson.
“When I was in high school, our coach one year decided to have a dual meet with Fort Dodge,” Smith said. “Back then we wrestled everybody in our own area, the other Council Bluffs schools and Omaha schools. That was pretty much our schedule until it came down to the district and state meets.”
“We would go to a qualifying tournament in Des Moines and the state meet was held in northern Iowa back then, at places like Clarion, Mason City and Waterloo,” Smith said.
“We graduated mid-year at that school and that one year we had four kids on our team that were going to graduate in January. They were all pretty good wrestlers. Our coach wanted to get a big win against somebody outside of Omaha/Council Bluffs,” Smith said.
“Fort Dodge had a pretty good team back then. By gosh we ended up beating them in the dual meet,” Smith said.
After winning his gold medal, he continued to wrestle competitively and at the 1956 Olympic Trials he became the only person to ever give wrestling great Dan Hodge a decisive defeat. However, Smith was not able to wrestle at the Melbourne Olympics that year because he was taken off the team when Olympic officials stated he had been paid to teach and coach at an Illinois high school (Rock Island), which was then a violation of amateur status.
Although he tried to protect his amateur eligibility by being paid to teach, not to coach, at Rock Island, AAU and Olympic officials didn’t see it that way. They wouldn’t let him go back in quest of another gold medal, saying his coaching work made him a professional.
It may have ended his competitive career, but he went on to a long and successful career that saw him coach at the high school, college and AAU levels.

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