Inductees

Years ago, back as a pre-teen, you could say Brian Smith had sort of an allergy. To the sport of wrestling, that is.

He had wrestled at an early age, but it didn’t interest him much. Not until relocating to Florida to improve his lung health – on doctor’s orders – and not until his dad, a former high school football coach, implored him that wrestling would improve his football skills.

“When I started wrestling, I realized that – more than any other sport —  you accomplish what you put into it,” Smith told Zou Nation magazine. “And that became the reason I fell in with it.”

That love for the sport has carried into his role as the longtime coach of the University of Missouri wrestling program, and his success is why the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame is proud to induct Smith with the Class of 2022.

Smith is in his 25^th season as the head coach of the Missouri Tigers wrestling program and is the winningest coach in program history, with a 318-113-4 record.

Additionally, his teams have had 11 top-10 finishes at the NCAA Championships – including in each of the past seven seasons (except the 2020 pandemic-canceled postseason). That includes a third-place finish in 2007, fourth in 2015 and fifth in 2017.

His teams own 21 consecutive seasons with a dual record at or above .500. The Tigers also have won 11 consecutive conference titles, including in 2022 in their return to the powerful Big 12 Conference.

Along the way, beginning with the 2001-2002 season, Smith has coached 29 All-Americans to 60 top-eight performances, and six Tigers have won nine individual national championships.

Nine times he has earned Coach of the Year honors, including twice nationally (2007 by W.I.N. magazine’s Dan Gable Coach of the Year and 2017 by the National Wrestling Coaches Association).

In other words, at a university with a rich basketball tradition, Smith has in essence been shooting takedowns instead of hoops – and doing it well.

In 1992, after his wrestling days at Michigan State had ended, he took on a part-time coaching job with the Cornell University wrestling program.

“My dad said to me, ‘One of my dreams was to be a college or NFL coach. You’re young and single, you can go after this,” Smith was quoted as saying. “I thought, I’ll do this for a couple of years and, if it doesn’t work, I’ll get another high school job.”

At Cornell, Smith helped put together two of the nation’s top 10 recruiting classes and also played a role in its two Ivy League championships. He then went on to Syracuse University as its head wrestling coach, but he also yearned to coach in the Big Ten or Big 12 Conference.

Understand just how far he had traveled at that point. When 14, doctors told him he may need a lung transplant or live in a warmer, after he had battled asthma and pneumonia in previous years.

The family then relocated to Florida, where Smith won two state wrestling titles before going on to Michigan State University, where he was a two-time Big Ten performer.

So when the Mizzou job came open, he went after it. And landed the job.

“I came in and said, ‘We’re going to do all the little things right: we may not be able to beat people yet, but we’ll do the little things right,’” Smith was quoted as saying. “A lot of the guys didn’t have any expectations or think they could be great. I needed to fix that.”

The neat thing about Smith is that he isn’t a drill sergeant in practices. Often he is simply just kicked back in the middle of the mats, explaining details, conversing with wrestlers, pointing out what they could do to improve.

“Looking back on where we started, I always encouraged (wrestlers) to do a little bit more, and a little more,” Smith said.

Smith credits many for his success. Among them was his dad.

“My team has heard many a story about my dad and his influence on me as an athlete, coach and person,” Smith said.

The support of his wife Denise and their three children – Quinn, Kylie and Braden – led to much success.

“Honestly, they are my happiness and the reason I have coached so long and have stayed for as long as I have at Mizzou,” Smith said. “All three of my children attended and graduated. We are a Mizzou family.”