Terry Michael Smith (born May 1959) is an American sportsman, known for his playing and coaching career in American football and baseball, and his ownership of professional sports teams.
After starting his playing career as a defensive back for American football franchise New England Patriots, Smith moved abroad to the United Kingdom, where he achieved international success as the player and head coach of the Manchester Spartans. Smith was also head coach of the Great Britain national American football team. He later spent ten years as owner and general manager of professional American football teams, and two years as owner and general manager of English soccer club Chester City from 1999 to 2001, including a spell as manager during part of his ownership.
Collegiate career Smith attended Cornell University for two years, where he played American football at wide receiver and free safety and baseball at shortstop and second base.
He then transferred to Furman University, where he played football, baseball, and ran track. In football, he started at free safety for two years on two Southern Conference Championship Furman teams.https://www.sports-reference.com/cfb/players/terry-smith-9.html
In baseball, he hit .414 in 1982, the 5th highest single season batting average in Furman history.
American football Professional career Smith started his professional American football career in 1982, signing as a free agent by the New England Patriots. However, he was later placed on the injured reserve list.
In 1988, Smith signed to play and coach for the Manchester Spartans American football team overseas in Great Britain’s British American Football Association. As a wide receiver and free safety from 1988 to 1998, Smith set more than 25 playing records with the Spartans, including setting the then National and League record for pass interceptions in a season with 11, and setting the National and British record for pass receptions in a single game with 15 pass receptions for 245 yards on July 7, 1991. His career best receiving yards season in Great Britain was 1988 with 1020 yards. He finished with more than 300 career pass receptions for more than 5,000 yards, and he retired as the all-time League career leader in interceptions. He twice led Europe in receiving for a season, he led Europe in interceptions for a season, and he was named to the All-Europe Team on several occasions as both a wide receiver and as a free safety. In 2004, Great Britain's governing body for American football chose Smith as the greatest defensive player in the history of the sport in Great Britain.
Coaching career After coaching at U.S. colleges, Smith went to Great Britain after signing with the Manchester Spartans football club in the NFL-sponsored League. After leading the Manchester Spartans from a 2–10 season to a 14–0 record in 1988, Smith was appointed head coach of the Great Britain national American football team. As the Manchester Spartans head coach, he won three straight Division Championships, three straight Conference Championships, two straight British National Championships, one Budweiser Bowl championship in 1989 at Crystal Palace in London, England, one Coca-Cola Bowl championship in 1990 at Crystal Palace in London, England, one Eurobowl championship with the Manchester Spartans in 1990 in Rimini, Italy, and one European Championship in Hamburg, Germany as the National team head coach with the Great Britain National Team in 1989.
As the head coach of the Great Britain national team, he took over a Great Britain team that had never won a single game against European competition, and in his first year Smith and his British national team defeated France 35–6 in the European Quarter-Final in a game played in Birmingham, England, defeated Germany 38–6 in the European Semi-Final in a game played in Hamburg, Germany, and defeated Finland 26–0 in the European Nations Championship Final in Hamburg, Germany to win Great Britain's first-ever European Championship.
At the same time Smith was coaching the Great Britain National Team, he was the player/head coach of the Manchester Spartans, where he led the Spartans to the Great Britain national championship in 1989 and qualified the Spartans for the European Football League 1990 European Professional Club Championship competition, called the EuroBowl. In the 1990 EuroBowl, Smith led his Spartans to victories over the Dublin Celts from Ireland in a game played in Dublin, Ireland, over the Amsterdam Crusaders from the Netherlands in the European Quarter-Final in a game played in Manchester, England, over the Berlin Adler from Germany in the European Semi-Final in a game played in Rimini, Italy, and over the Legnano Frogs from Italy in the European Championship Final in Rimini, Italy, to win the 1990 Eurobowl Championship. Until Smith and his Spartans, no British Club had ever won a single game in European competitions, but Smith's Spartans went 4-0 and won the entire European Championship in their first attempt. Smith and his Spartans also played in the Schweppes Cool Masters European Final in Hamburg, Germany in 1992.
With the Great Britain National Team, Smith led Great Britain to victories over France, Germany, and Finland by a combined score of 99–12 to win the 1989 European Nations Championship.
Before Smith became head coach, no British club or national team had won a game in European competition. Under his leadership, the Manchester Spartans and the Great Britain national team won their European competitions, including the first European championships won by British teams. As a result of these successes, Smith was nominated by Queen Elizabeth II for national end-of-year awards.
According to available records, Smith was the first coach to win both the European club championship and the European Nations Championship. He won more than 100 games in total as a head coach, while losing only 15. Due to his coaching success, Smith was selected as the National Coach of the Year three straight times, and as the European Coach of the Year twice. In addition, due to his playing and coaching success, Smith was selected to the Great Britain American Football Hall of Fame in 2004, and to the American Football Association (AFA) Hall of Fame in 1995 as one of only three Hall of Fame members to ever be chosen in the International category.
Professional sports team ownership
Smith later became the owner of several professional sports teams, including the Manchester Spartans. In July 1999, he bought financially struggling English League club Chester City, making him the first American owner, chairman, and chief executive in the history of European football. He declared his belief that the club could reach Division One (now the EFL Championship) within three years. The club was in administration when he took over, and close to folding with more than £1 million in debt. Some supporters credited Smith with helping prevent Chester City from folding. He also appointed three supporters to the club's board of directors.
At the time of Smith's takeover, most veteran players had been sold and the remaining players were mostly young. He kept these young players and tried to develop them in order to keep the player wages low, so that the club could not only balance the budget for that season, but also so they could try to pay off the £1 million of debt that Smith inherited.
Using this low budget strategy, along with increasing revenue through good Cup runs in the FA Cup and the Worthington Cup, increased attendance and commercial advertising, and with Smith serving as both manager and general manager for free at no cost to the club, then Smith was able to get all the club's debts paid off within only five months, which was two and a half years earlier than the administration required. As a result, the club was out of debt for the first time in at least many decades.
In Smith's four months and 21 league matches in charge of team affairs, Chester managed wins against Brighton & Hove Albion, Shrewsbury Town and others, but lost 5–1 and 4–1 to Leyton Orient and Carlisle United respectively, and required a replay to overcome non-league minnows Whyteleafe in the FA Cup. However, they did find success in the Worthington Cup, beating First Division Port Vale 6–5 on aggregate; they won 2–1 at the Deva Stadium in a game which saw both Marcus Bent and Martyn Lancaster sent off, and then drew 4–4 in the return leg at Vale Park.
They also had success in the FA Cup, as they made it to the third round for just the third time in the club's 100-year history. Drawn against Manchester City, they only lost in the final minutes after the score was tied at 1–1 with eleven minutes left. While scouting Man City ahead of the match, Smith, who came up with a strategy and team plan for the Man City match, found that when he could watch a match from up in the stands, then he was able to see the necessary tactical adjustments because of his many years of experience coaching American football, where coaches scout opponents by spending hundreds of hours every season watching game footage of their opponents that is filmed from high in the stands. This skill would benefit the team considerably the following season, when Smith would scout all of Chester's impending Cup opponents.
His methods included saying aloud the Lord's Prayer during his pre-match team talk, preparing lengthy written strategic game plans for each match that he went over in his pre-match team talk and gave copies of to each player, always staying positive no matter the current difficulties and circumstances, developing a school program where he went with players to speak with and coach schoolchildren, and to give out free tickets to each child for the upcoming matches, and appointing captains for the defence, midfield and attack.
In late December 1999, with Chester out of debt and on firm financial footing for the first time in decades, Smith chose to step down as manager. His decision came only one match after his team had pulled itself off the bottom of the Division following a 2–1 win over Halifax Town. Smith hired veteran manager Ian Atkins to the dual role of director of football and manager in a bid to avoid relegation, while Smith himself took on the role of goalkeeper coach for the remainder of the season.
With improvements in the club's financial position, the club was able to sign twelve new players that Atkins wanted and chose, doubling the player wage bill compared with when Smith was manager. The club was also able to afford to pay for team travel by luxury coaches to away matches instead of the regular buses used during Smith's period, and was able to pay for the team to stay at top hotels with excellent pre-match meals for all away matches instead of traveling to matches by bus on match day as had occurred during Smith's time period. The club also paid for a new training facility with two training pitches for Atkins' team, while Smith's team had endured training on a free piece of unlined grass in the middle of a horse racetrack. However, despite these financial investments in the team, the team began slowly under Atkins, losing seven of his first nine matches in charge, with only one win and one draw, and falling well adrift at the bottom of the Division table. Atkins' team lost his ninth match in charge by a 7–1 score at home to Brighton & Hove Albion, even though Smith's young team had defeated Brighton 3–2 away at Brighton earlier in the season.
Afterwards, however, results began to improve, and a 5–0 home victory over Mansfield Town in April, where Smith signee Angus Eve, Trinidad & Tobago's career leading goal scorer with 43 national team goals, scored two goals, put Chester in a better position.