Bellingham – Rob Smith’s tattered, overused tear ducts should have run dry after this past week.
He unashamedly wept when he told his Western Washington University football team that he would resign Saturday, the end of the Vikings’ season.
He choked up when he told his assistant coaches and athletic-department staff.
All this week, as word carried that Western’s most successful football coach ever had had enough, Smith’s tears continued to run down his face as he read the letters and e-mails that came pouring in.
“It’s been very emotional,” Smith said. “It truly has. The phone calls that I’ve received have been overwhelming. I really feel blessed that I’ve been able to do what I’ve done for 17 years.”
We saw Rob Smith at his core these last few days, leading up to Western’s 28-7 defeat to Western Oregon. On the outside a gruff, hulking, menacing bear of a man, Smith is a softy inside – a husband and family man who, because of the nature of his job, has spent more time with other people’s children than his own.
That’s over. With daughter Alison, 11, sitting on his lap Saturday, Smith’s eyes glistened again as he talked about being a daddy to her and son Jared, 7.
“It’s going to be kind of weird coming home from school and there’s my dad,” Alison said. “He’s always coming home after I’m asleep.”
Added his wife, Wendy, about the prospect of having her husband around the house more: “I may have to get a job now.”
Smith denies burnout, even though he admits the victories didn’t stick with him as long as they used to and the losses stuck longer. He won’t rule out the possibility of coaching again – in fact, he looks forward to returning.
“I hope that I haven’t coached my final game,” he said. “It’s what I am.”
Nor was Smith forced out, despite a 20-20 record the last four seasons. He told WWU athletic director Lynda Goodrich as far back as January that this might be his final season, that he might want to spend more time with family and possibly explore some business ventures.
Smith said he didn’t completely make up his mind until he walked off the field Saturday, Oct. 29, following a 31-28 defeat to arch-rival Central Washington, a game in which the Vikings blew a 21-point halftime lead at home.
Simply, Smith said, it’s time.
“It’s not something that just started,” Smith said. “I don’t know what it is. Change is a good thing and I think it will be a good thing for me. I’ve noticed a different feeling that I have had about the job and things that go with the job and the games and all of that. There have been some signals, but I don’t feel burned out. I still feel energy. I think I was able to give the same effort this year that I have in previous years.”
Without doubt, Smith will attack the next chapter of his life with the same passion as he has the last 17 years. And those 17 years he dedicated to Western football were special.
The numbers tell part of the story: 109 wins, 62 losses and a tie, a WWU record for victories and winning percentage (.643). He was named his conference’s Coach of the Year seven times, five in the Columbia Football League, two in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference. He ranks third in victories behind Frosty Westering and Don James among collegiate coaches in the state of Washington.
When Smith came to Western as an assistant coach in 1987 (it was just going to be a stopover while he earned his Master’s degree in Adult Education Administration), the program had slogged through nine straight losing seasons. Upon his arrival, the Vikings posted two straight winning campaigns.
When Smith became head coach in 1989, Western went 7-2, its best record in 38 years. The program escalated. In 1995, WWU held a No. 1 ranking in a regular-season poll for the first time in its history and stayed there for five weeks. The next year, the Vikings made their first national-championship game appearance, falling to Sioux Falls (S.D.), 47-25.
“That’s the one that is always going to stick with you,” Smith said. “You get that one chance to be in that game and we didn’t get it done. We lost to a very good team.”
But beyond the numbers, the victories, the awards and the conference championships, Smith was a dedicated, no-nonsense teacher of young people. A former University of Washington running back who played in the 1978 Rose Bowl under James, Smith taught to accept nothing less than excellence. He taught toughness. He taught achievement through sweat and dedication.
“I’ll remember his leadership,” said Steve Davis, a redshirt freshman strong safety from Kennewick. “He’s always about business and getting the job done.
You don’t mess around.”
“I learned about excellence and work ethic,” senior center Loren Winter said. “You learn about being committed to something bigger than yourself.”
Former assistant coach Scott Hodgkinson, who flew from his home in Tucson to Bellingham just to see his old boss at his final game at Western, said Smith’s longevity leaves him terminally synonymous with Western football.
Whoever replaces Smith will feel the pressure of having replaced a local legend.
But it will be even more difficult for the replacement to match what Smith has meant to the young people he will coach.
“He’s just a good, good man,” said senior tight end Nick Yoney, a former Arlington star. “He has love for his family, love for his players and love for his job.”
Alison and Jared Smith will see that love more and more now from their dad.
Even if Wendy Smith has to get a job to cope with it.
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