Football
Billy Ray Smith Sr. lettered for the Razorbacks in 1954 and 1956 and was a first-team All-SWC tackle at Arkansas in his final season. Smith was an Augusta High School standout from 1950-52. He made the All-American Prep Team in 1952. Smith was a Golden Gloves fighter regional champion in 1953-54 and twice Mid-South heavyweight champion, 1955-56. In 1954, Smith was a member of Bowden Wyatt’s “24 Little Pigs” that helped Arkansas to a SWC Championship and a berth in the 1955 Cotton Bowl. Following his Razorback career, he was drafted third by the Los Angeles Rams in 1957 and played pro football for 14 years from 1957-71. Smith played at Pittsburgh in 1958-60 and with the Baltimore Colts from 1961-71. He was a member of the Super Bowl Champion Colts in 1971. A member of the University of Arkansas’ All-Century Team and the 1950s All-Decade Team, Sports Illustrated named him as one of the “Fifty Greatest Sports Figures from Arkansas in 1999. Smith was inducted into the University of Arkansas Sports Hall of Honor in 1994. He is also enshrined in the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame (1976). His son, Billy Ray Smith Jr., also played at Arkansas and is inducted into both the University of Arkansas Sports Hall of Honor and the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame.
