Return to Team Brute John Smith Residence: Stillwater, OK College: Oklahoma State University High School: Del City High School, OK Nobody has put together a more celebrated wrestling career than John Smith. Smith won six world championships from 1988-92, and is one of the winningest coaches at the most successful wrestling program in the country. He will try to accomplish something that only one other coach has accomplished in school history. Ed Gallagher won four consecutive titles for OSU from 1928-31 and from 1937-40. Smith will be aiming for his fourth consecutive title in 2006, and his team will take the mat in the building that currently bears Gallagher’s name. The 2005 Cowboys might have been Smith’s best coaching job to date. Smith was faced with the enviable task of making a great team even better. After the Calendar turned from 2004 to 2005, Smith pulled his two highly touted freshmen out of redshirt, and another redshirt freshman was in the process of becoming a 141-pounder. He already had five All-Americans in the lineup. That number became seven when two of his freshmen placed and the other finished one round away from the podium. The ending result was the most dominating NCAA finish in school history. The Cowboys obliterated the tournament posting a 38-9 record and crowning a record five champions. OSU set school records in points, margin of victory and national champions. Oklahoma State scored 153 team points to top second-place Michigan by 70 points. As part of the 2005 NCAA Wrestling Championships, Smith was one of 15 wrestlers honored on the NCAA’s 75th Anniversary Team to commemorate 75 years of the NCAA Wrestling Championships. He was named to the team along with his brother Pat. Smith followed his older brother Lee Roy from Del City to Oklahoma State in 1984. Lee Roy had already been an NCAA champ, and John had similar aspirations. John wrestled at 126 his first year in college, and finished second in the Big 8. That was the only year he failed to win a conference title. The next three years he competed, he won three Big 8 titles, and was a three-time NCAA finalist, winning two titles. He compiled a 90-1 record over his final two years of collegiate competition. Following Smith’s junior year at Oklahoma State, he won his first world championship in Clermont-Ferrand France. Smith remains the only collegiate wrestler to win a world championship while he was still in school. Smith finished his career with a record of 154-7-2, and he holds school records for career victories, victories in a season, career falls and single season falls. Following his graduation in 1988, Smith qualified for the U.S. Olympic freestyle team. The Olympics were held in Seoul, South Korea. Smith came away with the gold medal and the second of his six consecutive world titles. Smith continued to rack up awards and medals after he finished his college career. He was the first wrestler to receive the James E. Sullivan Award given to the nation’s top amateur athlete. The U.S. Olympic Committee named him the “Sportsman of the Year” in 1990. In 1992, Smith was named the Outstanding Wrestler of the Year by FILA, the governing body of amateur wrestling. His wrestling career came to an end later that year after he won his second Olympic gold medal in Barcelona, Spain, and his last of six world championships. However, Smith’s coaching career was just getting started. Smith began serving as an assistant coach at Oklahoma State in 1989. The Cowboys won back-to-back national championships in 1989-90 under Joe Seay, and they were runner-up in 1991 and 1992. Following the 1991 season, Joe Seay stepped down paving the way for Smith to take over the reins. Smith led the Cowboys to a 7-0 season and an NCAA runner-up finish. The Cowboys were not eligible for the Big 8 Tournament that season, and were ineligible for postseason consideration in 1993 as well. In 1994, Oklahoma State’s first full season back from NCAA sanctions, the Cowboys won the national championship. Smith has not looked back. In the time since he has taken over as head coach, he has won over 200 duals and four national championships. Smith has successfully resuscitated the program back from its darkest hour in the early 90s to the glory that it is experiencing now. Oklahoma State has now won three consecutive national titles. OSU hadn’t won three straight since Art Griffith led Oklahoma A&M to three consecutive titles from 1954-56. Smith has also successfully established a wrestling club that allows wrestlers from across the country to prepare and train for international competition. The Gator Wrestling Club sent three former Oklahoma State wrestlers to compete in the Olympic Games. Jamill Kelly won the silver medal, while Daniel Cormier finished fourth and Eric Guerrero also qualified. John Smith has become synonomous with Oklahoma State wrestling. He is one of the most successful wrestler’s in the program’s history, and he is eyeing Tommy Chesbro’s mark of 227 wins as a head coach. In 1995, Smith married the former Toni Donaldson. The couple has an eight-year old son, Joseph; a six-year old daughter, Isabell; a four-year old daughter, Cecilia and a two-year old son named Samuel.