William T. Smith (September 17, 1928 – March 20, 2018) was an American

wrestler Wrestling is a series of combat sports involving grappling-type techniques such as clinch fighting, throws and takedowns, joint locks, pins and other grappling holds. Wrestling techniques have been incorporated into martial arts, combat sport ...

and Olympic champion in

freestyle wrestling Freestyle wrestling is a style of wrestling originated from Great Britain and the United States. Along with Greco-Roman, it is one of the two styles of wrestling contested in the Olympic Games. American high school and men's college wrestling ...

at the 1952 Olympic Games. Smith was born in

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...

and graduated from Thomas Jefferson Senior High School in

Council Bluffs, Iowa Council Bluffs is a city in and the county seat of Pottawattamie County, Iowa, Pottawattamie County, Iowa, United States. The city is the most populous in Southwest Iowa, and is the third largest and a primary city of the Omaha–Council Bluffs ...

. He then enrolled at Iowa State Teachers College (now the

University of Northern Iowa The University of Northern Iowa (UNI) is a public university in Cedar Falls, Iowa. UNI offers more than 90 majors across the colleges of Business Administration, Education, Humanities, Arts, and Sciences, Social and Behavioral Sciences and grad ...

), where Smith won back-to-back NCAA wrestling titles at 165 pounds in 1949 and 1950. As a team, Iowa State Teachers College finished as NCAA Runners-Up in 1949 and NCAA Champions in 1950. He also won three Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) national titles. In 1978, Smith was inducted into the

National Wrestling Hall of Fame The National Wrestling Hall of Fame and Museum is a museum and hall of fame for amateur wrestling, headquartered in Stillwater, Oklahoma. In 2010, it began operating the Dan Gable Museum in Waterloo, Iowa. History The museum was awarded to Stillw ...

as a Distinguished Member. Thomas Jefferson High School dedicated their Wrestling room shortly after they rebuilt their Activities Center Building in 2008. William Smith died on March 20, 2018, at the age of 89. Intermat Wrestling website posted an article about Bill citing all of his accomplishments.

Olympics

Smith competed at the

1952 Summer Olympics The 1952 Summer Olympics ( fi, Kesäolympialaiset 1952; sv, Olympiska sommarspelen 1952), officially known as the Games of the XV Olympiad ( fi, XV olympiadin kisat; sv, Den XV olympiadens spel) and commonly known as Helsinki 1952 ( sv, Helsin ...

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...

where he received a gold medal in

Freestyle wrestling Freestyle wrestling is a style of wrestling originated from Great Britain and the United States. Along with Greco-Roman, it is one of the two styles of wrestling contested in the Olympic Games. American high school and men's college wrestling ...

, competing in the welterweight class."1952 Summer Olympics – Helsinki, Finland – Wrestling"
''databaseOlympics.com'' (Retrieved on 13 September 2008)

References

1928 births 2018 deaths Wrestlers at the 1952 Summer Olympics American male sport wrestlers Olympic gold medalists for the United States in wrestling Wrestlers from Oregon Medalists at the 1952 Summer Olympics Sportspeople from Portland, Oregon {{US-wrestling-bio-stub