Hall of Fame
Bill Smith won the Olympic Gold Medal in wrestling at 160.5 pounds in the 1952 Games, as he powered his way to two NCAA wrestling titles in 1949 and 1950 while representing his school. He added three national freestyle firsts while an undefeated dual record of 52-0-1.
As a coach, his Rock Island, Ill., team produced a 57-5 record and a state title. Moving to the collegiate ranks, he coached Nebraska to four winning seasons and then spent 10 years as mentor to the Olympic Club in San Francisco, Calif., winning seven titles. In 1968, he was named coach of the Canadian Olympic team and he later returned to high school coaching in California.
A graduate of Thomas Jefferson High School in Council Bluffs, Iowa, Smith was inducted into the Iowa Wrestling Hall of Fame in 1972, the Iowa High School Wrestling Hall of fame in 1977, and the National Wrestling Hall of fame in 1978. His Olympic gold was the first ever earned in the history of the school, and he donated that medal to the UNI wrestling program in January 2018, prior to his death in March.