Benjamin Harris Smith Jr. (June 16, 1911 – February 23, 1941) was an

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 wi ...

end in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ma ...

(NFL) for the

Green Bay Packers The Green Bay Packers are a professional American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The Packers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) North division. It is the thi ...

, the

Pittsburgh Pirates The Pittsburgh Pirates are an American professional baseball team based in Pittsburgh. The Pirates compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Founded as part of the American Associat ...

, and the

Washington Redskins The Washington Commanders are a professional American football team based in the Washington metropolitan area. The Commanders compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) E ...

. He played

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 o ...

at the

University of Alabama The University of Alabama (informally known as Alabama, UA, or Bama) is a public research university in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Established in 1820 and opened to students in 1831, the University of Alabama is the oldest and largest of the public ...

. Smith worked as an assistant coach for his brother, Earle Smith, at

Spring Hill College Spring Hill College is a private, Jesuit college in Mobile, Alabama. It was founded in 1830 by Michael Portier, Bishop of Mobile. Along with being the oldest college or university in the state of Alabama, it was the first Catholic college in th ...

in 1938. He disappeared on February 23, 1941, while on a fishing trip. His body was discovered 22 days later, on March 17, floating in the

Tensaw River The Tensaw River is a river in Baldwin County, Alabama. The name ''Tensaw'' is derived from the historic indigenous Taensa people. Overview It is a distributary of the Mobile River, approximately long. It is formed as a bayou of the Mobile appro ...

near

Mobile, Alabama Mobile ( , ) is a city and the county seat of Mobile County, Alabama, United States. The population within the city limits was 187,041 at the 2020 census, down from 195,111 at the 2010 census. It is the fourth-most-populous city in Alabama, ...

References

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* 1911 births 1941 deaths American football ends Alabama Crimson Tide football players Green Bay Packers players Pittsburgh Americans players Pittsburgh Pirates (football) players Spring Hill Badgers football coaches Washington Redskins players People from Haleyville, Alabama Players of American football from Alabama Boating accident deaths Accidental deaths in Alabama {{widereceiver-1910s-stub