Bob Smith (born April 22, 1940) is a former

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

coach. He served as the head football coach at

Southeast Missouri State University Southeast Missouri State University (SEMO) is a public university in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. In addition to the main campus, the university has four regional campuses offering full degree programs and a secondary campus housing the Holland Col ...

from 1984 to 1987 and Southern Illinois University Carbondale from 1989 to 1993, compiling a career

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

coaching record of 34–64–1. Smith was the head football coach at Manual High School in

Peoria, Illinois Peoria ( ) is the county seat of Peoria County, Illinois, United States, and the largest city on the Illinois River. As of the United States Census, 2020, 2020 census, the city had a population of 113,150. It is the principal city of the Peoria ...

from 1973 to 1977. In 1978, he joined the coaching staff at the

University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Universit ...

and was put in charge of the receivers under head coach Gary Moeller. He remained on the Illinois staff when Mike White took over the program in 1980. By 1983, Smith was coaching the offensive linemen and helped guide the

1983 Illinois Fighting Illini football team The 1983 Illinois Fighting Illini football team represented the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign during the 1983 NCAA Division I-A football season. The team's offensive leaders were quarterback Jack Trudeau with 2,446 passing yards, ...

to a

Big Ten Conference The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...

title and an appearance in the

1984 Rose Bowl The 1984 Rose Bowl game, played on Monday, January 2, was the 70th edition. The unranked UCLA Bruins upset the #4 Illinois Fighting Illini by a score of 45–9. Rick Neuheisel, UCLA quarterback, was named the Player of the Game.Southeast Missouri State Redhawks The Southeast Missouri State Redhawks are the athletic teams of Southeast Missouri State University (SEMO), located in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, United States. The Redhawks athletic program is a member of the Ohio Valley Conference (OVC) and compe ...

to a record of 17–26–1 in four seasons. His 1987 squad shared the

Missouri Intercollegiate Athletic Association The Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association (MIAA) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II level, headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri. Its fourteen mem ...

(MIAA) title and Smith was named the conference's coach of the year. In early 1988, he resigned to return to Illinois and join the staff of John Mackovic, who had been hired to succeed White as head coach.

Head coaching record

References

1940 births Living people Illinois Fighting Illini football coaches Southern Illinois Salukis football coaches Southeast Missouri State Redhawks football coaches High school football coaches in Illinois {{1980s-collegefootball-coach-stub