Norman Earl Smith

1917 - 2012

Norman Earl Smith
Image source: The Buccaneer, 1967

A native of Micro, N.C., Norman Earl Smith transferred to ECTC in the spring of 1937 after having studied at N.C. State College and Campbell Junior College. At ECTC, Smith excelled athletically, lettering in football, baseball, and basketball. Following graduation in 1939, Smith returned to East Carolina to serve in various positions, including head coach first of basketball and then subsequently baseball. In both capacities, Smith led the Pirates to a succession of championship seasons in the Southern Conference. Smith was also a leader in the desegregation of ECU athletics, working with basketball head coach Tom Quinn in recruiting and playing Vince Colbert, the first African-American student at East Carolina to receive an athletic scholarship. As had Smith in the 1930s, Colbert excelled in both basketball and baseball, distinguishing himself as one of the all-time outstanding Pirate athletes.

As a student at ECTC in the 1930s, Smith starred in three sports. However, his senior year he suffered a knee injury while playing football that sidelined him for the remainder of the gridiron season. Nevertheless, he was able to play basketball and baseball, and indeed lettered in all three sports. In his final year as Pirate third baseman, Smith set a batting record with his .531 average. In basketball, Smith was the second leading scorer his senior year, with 140 points. After graduating from ECTC, he played baseball in the Coastal Plains League for three years and in the Bi-State League for one year. He also coached at the high school level.

During WWII, Smith served in the Navy for two years as athletic director of the Coast Guard Air Station in Elizabeth City. After being discharged due to complications related to his earlier knee injury, he coached at Gastonia High School, and then worked as athletic director of Marian Manufacturing Company in Marian, N.C.

In the fall of 1945, Smith returned to ECTC to coach inter-collegiate competition while working on his master’s degree. Then his first major position in coaching opened up at Campbell Junior College, where he had earlier studied before transferring to ECTC in 1937. At Campbell, Smith had a highly successful seven-year run as head coach, directing the football, basketball, baseball, tennis, and cross-country teams to successive winning seasons in junior college play.

Following WWII, East Carolina witnessed explosive growth in its male student body as well as an elevation in academic status, from ECTC to ECC. In tandem with these changes, ECC began to harbor grand athletic ambitions. In 1953, it hired Smith away from Campbell, bringing him back to his alma mater to serve as assistant coach to Jim Mallory in coaching football, basketball, and baseball. In 1959, Smith was promoted to head basketball coach. During his four-year tenure, Smith racked up an impressive 53-40 record as Pirate cager coach.

In 1963, Smith was named head coach of the Pirate baseball team, a position he held for the next nine seasons, racking up an impressive 185-103-2 record. Moreover, Smith’s Pirates either won or shared the Southern Conference championship six times. Smith’s successes as baseball coach coincided, incidentally, with the school’s move away from NAIA (National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics) competition to the more challenging NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) level of collegiate play.

Along with an impressive string of Southern Conference championships, Smith presided over the successful desegregation of Pirate baseball in 1967. That season, Vince Colbert, an outstanding athlete who, like Smith, played multiple collegiate sports, joined the Buc baseball team as one of its star pitchers. Smith gave Colbert ample opportunities to excel: In 1968, Colbert pitched nine complete games. He was subsequently drafted by the Cleveland Indians and played with that major league team, 1970-1973. In 2009, Colbert was inducted into the ECU Athletics Hall of Fame.

After stepping down as head baseball coach, Smith continued teaching at ECU in the Department of Health and Physical Education until 1989. He then began yet another career as a professional baseball scout for the San Diego Padres, the Chicago Cubs, the San Francisco Giants, and the Boston Red Sox. Among Smith’s finds was another outstanding eastern North Carolina athlete, Gaylord Perry. Perry went on to a stellar career in professional baseball and subsequent induction in the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Smith was inducted into the ECU Athletics Hall of Fame in 1977. In 1986, Campbell University honored Smith by adding him to its Athletics Hall of Fame. In 2003, Smith received his highest honor, induction into the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame. Regarding these, Smith remarked, “I didn’t put myself in any of these hall of fames. The boys who played for me did that. I always followed something I got from my mom and dad. I treated my players as if they were my sons. The boys were the ones who done it.”

Sources

Additional Related Material

Norman Earl Smith

Norman Earl Smith, senior year, The Tecoan, 1939
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Norman Earl Smith, junior year, The Tecoan, 1932
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Norman Earl Smith, The Tecoan, 1946
Baseball, 1966

East Carolina Baseball, 1966, The Buccaneer 1967
Pirates Tie for Conference Title

Coach Earl Smith and co-captains Richard Narron and Lynn Smith, The Buccaneer 1968

Citation Information

Title: Norman Earl Smith

Author: John A. Tucker, PhD

Date of Publication: 9/27/2019

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