ANDERSON TOWNSHIP, Ohio — Adrian Smith was a gentleman.
That’s how family, friends and fans are remembering the former Cincinnati Royals guard, NCAA champion and two-time gold medal winner.
Smith, a longtime Anderson Township resident, died April 28 at the age of 89. The Golo, Kentucky native called Cincinnati home for more than six decades.
“He led with love, empathy, kindness and compassion,” said his son, Tyler Smith. “He was my hero.”
Smith is survived by his son, Tyler, and his brother, Kenny. He was preceded in death by his wife, Paula, his parents and four siblings. The service schedule is set for Friday.
Nicknamed "Odie," Smith won an NCAA national championship in 1958 with the University of Kentucky. Smith was an initial member of the 2006 UK Athletics Hall of Fame and was inducted into the (state of) Kentucky Sports Hall of Fame in 2005.
He was remembered by Big Blue Nation on Monday afternoon.
“Odie holds a special place in the history, and the treasured heritage, of Kentucky basketball,” said Mitch Barnhart, UK Director of Athletics.
“His accomplishments on the court — the NCAA championship at UK, two gold medals representing the United States in international competition, and his 11-year pro career — speak for themselves. What I remember most about Odie is that he had such a positive presence. He was a bright light wherever he went, always smiling, always cheerful, and most of all, so incredibly proud that he had played for the Wildcats. Our condolences are with his family, his friends and the Wildcat basketball family that meant so much to him.”
Basketball historians often identify Smith as the 1966 NBA All-Star Game’s Most Valuable Player at the Cincinnati Gardens. Smith won a Ford Galaxie 500 convertible and is still the only player in NBA history to win all-star MVP honors in his only all-star appearance.
Little did he know at the time that an all-star game that included 16 future Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Famers on an early January evening in Bond Hill would transform into what he said after the game was “the biggest thrill of my life.”
Smith scored 24 points and grabbed eight rebounds off the bench in just 26 minutes to help give the East a 137-94 win over the West.
“I was the best player on the floor, or they wouldn’t have given me that car,” Smith told the Los Angeles Times in 2011.
Smith proudly kept his jerseys from the all-star game and the Royals, along with the MVP trophy and his automobile prize, through the decades. He led the NBA in free-throw percentage in 1966-67 (.903) and four times led the league in games played, according to his family.
“He was a dear friend,” said Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Famer Jerry Lucas in a phone interview Monday morning. “He was a very good player. He was very steady, very reliable. He was a good shooter.”
After eight seasons with the Royals, Smith was traded to San Francisco — now the Golden State Warriors — on Christmas Day 1969.
Smith completed his pro career in 1971-72 with the Virginia Squires of the American Basketball Association (ABA) where he shared the court with a rookie named Julius Erving.
After his basketball career, Smith built a distinguished second career in banking. He volunteered as an assistant coach for the Cincinnati Slammers of the Continental Basketball Association for three years. He was also a loving husband and father.
“To me, he was always dad,” Tyler Smith said. “The other stuff was an added bonus. I idolized my dad. He made the world better because he was in it, and people responded to that.”
Smith was born the fifth of six children on Oct. 5, 1936. He grew up in a one-bedroom farmhouse without electricity or indoor plumbing in rural Graves County, where he attended a three-room schoolhouse. It was a childhood defined more by resourcefulness than by hardship.
Ruth Smith, Adrian’s mother, created his first basketball from unraveled wool socks, in which he learned to shoot by tossing them into a bottomless peach basketball nailed to a tree.
As a senior at Farmington High School, his only scholarship offer came from nearby Murray State University, but he took too long to accept, so it was withdrawn. He was later offered an opportunity to Northeast Mississippi Junior College. The coach persuaded a University of Kentucky assistant coach to make a trip to watch Smith play. That visit led to a scholarship offer from UK head coach Adolph Rupp.
At UK, Smith became a part of the 1958 NCAA national championship. He was selected by the Royals in the 15th round of the ’58 NBA Draft. He served in the United States Army and, while still in uniform in 1959, was selected to participate in the Pan American Games in Chicago. He earned a gold medal.
In 1960, he had a team-high 17 points in the opening game of the Olympics against host Italy in Rome.
Smith won an Olympic gold medal, and that team was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame 50 years later. It was a team that included Hall of Famers Oscar Robertson, Jerry West, Walt Bellamy and Lucas.
“I don’t think there is any doubt in mind it was the best amateur team ever assembled, period,” Lucas said.
In 1996, Smith was selected to carry the Olympic torch through Cincinnati as part of the Atlanta Summer Games. It was another part of Smith’s legacy.
“Odie Smith was the kindest, nicest man,” said Steve Wolf, the son of the late Royals coach Charley Wolf. “You would never have thought he was an Olympian. He was a stellar man. He was just a wonderful person.”
