Staff Directory
- Title:
- Former Head Coach and Student-Athlete
Legendary women's basketball player Bev Smith spent eight seasons as the head coach of her alma mater from 2001 to 2009.
Smith found success early in her Oregon coaching career. In her first season as a U.S. college coach, Smith and her coaching staff led Oregon to the WNIT Championship in 2002. The WNIT title marked the Ducks’ ninth consecutive postseason appearance and established a precedent for even greater goals to be accomplished in this new era of Oregon women’s basketball.In 2001-02, Smith guided Oregon to a 22-13 record, a semifinal finish in the inaugural Pac-10 Tournament as well as five wins in the WNIT, including the dramatic 54-52 victory over Houston in the title tilt at McArthur Court.
Smith became just the third first-year coach in the Pac-10 to reach the 20-win plateau, the others being USC’s Cheryl Miller (26 wins) and Oregon’s Jody Runge (20 wins), both in the 1993-94 season.
The Ducks’ fifth head coach in women’s basketball history, Smith continued the success of a program that advanced to postseason tournaments nine consecutive seasons (1994-2002), including two Pac-10 Conference championships in 1999 and 2000.
“I’ve always been a Duck,” said Smith, an inductee in both the Canadian Olympic (2003) and Women’s Basketball (2004) halls of fame. “I’ve taken great pride in traveling around the world and hearing about the success of this program at the University of Oregon.”
The two-time Oregon All-American (1981 and 1982) also led Canada to a 10th-place finish at the 2000 Olympics at Sydney, in addition to leading the Canadian National Team to its best finish at the Pan American Games in Winnipeg in 1999 with a silver medal.
On an international level, she coached and played in the Italian league for 15 years. She coached the Familia Schio Club team to second-place national finishes in Division I in 1999-00 and 1998-99. In 1996-97, Smith led Vivo Vicenzo to a first-place finish in Division II. She also served as the head coach at the University of British Columbia in 1988-89. Her first coaching stint came in 1985 as a player-coach for Ferrara in the Italian league.As a reward for her tremendous accomplishments as a coach and player, Smith became the only inductee into the 2001 class of the Canadian Basketball Hall of Fame.
“Bev Smith was the Canadian women’s team’s Larry Bird,” former national women’s team coach Don McCrae said. “She was able to do all things on the court. If there were extended statistics kept, Bev would have been in the top three in all categories, such as taking the charge, tips and interceptions, as well as scoring, rebounding and assists.”
Smith became one of the greatest women’s basketball players ever during her four-year Oregon career from 1978-82. A 6-foot-1 forward, she led the program through its most successful era at that time, with the Ducks posting a combined 93-19 record, as well as berths in one NCAA and two AIAW tournaments.
Smith established school records for points scored in a single game (38), season (632) and career (2,063); rebounds in one game (26), season (376) and career (1,362); career assists (443); as well as steals in a single game (11), season (95) and career (349). Oregon’s second-leading scorer and top rebounder of all time still holds several school records.
A three-time Northwest Basketball League (NWBL) player of the year, Smith, who received a bachelor’s degree in human performance, remains the Ducks’ lone woman to garner first-team Kodak All-America honors.
With Smith on the floor, the Ducks went 40-1 at storied McArthur Court, losing her only game in the NCAA Tournament her senior year. In 1981 and 1982, she earned GTE Academic All-America honors.
She also was a member of the University’s inaugural Athletic Hall of Fame class in 1992.
Following her successful stint with the Ducks, she played for the Canadian National Team from 1978-88 and from 1992-96, serving as the captain, and in the Italian league from 1982-96 for teams in Vicenza and Ferrara. She was selected to the All-World Team after leading Canada to third place at the World Championships at Seoul, Korea, in 1979.
In 1984, she helped Canada to a fourth-place mark at the Olympics at Los Angeles. As a member of the Vivo Vicenza team, she won the Italian National Championship and the European Cup during the 1992-93 season. Smith retired from playing after the 1996 Olympics at Atlanta.
Smith graduated from Salmon Arm Senior Secondary in 1978, leading her team to three provincial championships and an 89-game winning streak.
She was born April 4, 1960, in Salmon Arm, B.C.
