Tempe – Former head coach of Sun Devil Wrestling, Lee Roy Smith, will be inducted into the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame on August 15, 2022, along with five others. In his nine years as ASU head coach, the Sun Devils have won three individual NCAA champions, 28 All-Americans, 27 individual Pac-10 champions, five NCAA Top 10 finishes, and five Pac-10s. The team won his title. Smith won the Pac-10 Coach of the Year award four times. Smith later became Executive Director of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame and Museum in 2004.
USA Wrestling/Wrestling HOF Initial Announcement and Extended Lee Roy Smith Bio
Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame
Class of 2022 Inductees:
Chuck Bowman
Lane Frost*
RW McQuarters
Willsey Moore*
tinker owens
Lee Roy Smith
*Posthumously inducted into the Hall of Fame
A native of Dell City, Oklahoma, he was Del City High School’s first two-time Oklahoma state champion, went 71-3, and won the Outstanding Wrestler Award in his senior year. He is also the first wrestler from Oklahoma to win the National Junior Freestyle Championship twice. Smith continued wrestling at Oklahoma State University, where he won the Big He Eight four times and the All-American three times. In 1980 he won the NCAA title with his 142 lbs. He was the Cowboys’ 1980 Athlete of the Year.
After college, Smith worked as a wrestling alumni assistant at OSU between international competitions. He is a three time He’s National Open Freestyle Champion and a two time Outstanding Wrestler. He won his trials at the 1984 Olympics, qualified for two World Championship teams, won a silver medal in 1983, and won a silver medal in 1983 and he also won a silver medal at the 1984 World Cup. Did.
His coaching resume includes a two-year suspension with the Swiss Wrestling Federation, a four-year position as National Freestyle Coach with USA Wrestling, and nine years with ASU. Smith was on the 1996 Olympic Broadcast Team and returned to the Olympics in 2000 as a liaison for the management and production teams.