American Football Association (AFA) Hall of Fame (1995)
Terry Michael Smith (born May 1959)[2] 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.
He then transferred to Furman University, where he played football, baseball, and ran track, becoming the only Furman athlete for the past 50 years to play and letter in three sports. In football, he started at free safety for two years on two Southern Conference Championship Furman teams, leading all defensive backs with more than 150 tackles in two seasons and being selected to the Academic All-Southern Conference and All-Region teams. He was chosen as the State of South Carolina College Defensive Player of the Week for his outstanding performance in a game versus VMI in 1980, and he was also chosen as the Player of the Week for his performances in games versus both The University of North Carolina in 1980 and The University of Florida in 1981. In the three games combined, Smith totaled 59 tackles, 1 tackle for loss, 3 passes defended, 3 fumbles caused, 1 fumble recovered, and 1 pass interception.
In baseball, he started for two seasons in centerfield, hitting .414 in 1982, the 5th highest single season batting average in Furman history, and he was selected first-team All-Southern Conference and MVP. He finished his career with a .363 career batting average, which is still the second-highest career batting average in Furman history, and the highest career Furman average for the past sixty years. He also stole 29 bases out of 31 attempts, giving him the highest career success rate for steals in Furman history for any player who has attempted more than 10 attempts.
In track, he ran the 100 meter, 200 meter, and 400 meter, and he also ran the 4x100, 4x200, and 4x400 relays. Smith was nominated for the Southern Conference Athlete of the Year.[3][4][5]
American football
Professional career
Smith started his professional American football career in 1982. He was signed as a free agent by the New England Patriots, and led the team in interceptions and tackles during training camp.[6] However, as the headhunter on the kick-off team he injured his knee while he was making a tackle in a game against the Philadelphia Eagles, an injury that required major reconstructive surgery, and was placed on the injured reserve list.[7] During his career, Smith played in the World's Fair Game in Knoxville, Tennessee, against the Pittsburgh Steelers, a game that had 104,000 spectators, the third largest attendance for a game in NFL history, and his Patriots team made the NFL play-offs in 1982. He stayed with the Patriots for two years before eventually having to retire because his injured knee would not pass the team physical at the time. He returned to the football field signing for the Arizona Wranglers in the USFL in 1984, and in professional baseball was invited to spring training with the Cincinnati Reds and signed with the Miami Marlins of the Florida State League (A+), a club that owned the Major League Baseball franchise rights for the city of Miami, who exercised those rights to become the MLB's Florida Marlins based in Miami, and then returned to its original name as the current MLB's Miami Marlins.
In 1988, Smith signed to play and coach for the Manchester Spartans American football team overseas in Great Britain 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 (according to http://www.britballnow.co.uk/), 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. Due to his high level of success, which included turning around a 2–10 team before he arrived into an all-time British record 14–0 undefeated team in his first season in 1988, Smith was chosen by the Great Britain National Governing Body as the 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.
Prior to Smith becoming head coach, no British team in history, club team or national team, had ever won a single game in European competition. However, Smith transformed the British game and went a perfect 7 wins and no losses in all European competitions with both of his two teams, the Spartans and the Great Britain national team, winning the first two European Championships in British American football history. As a result of these successes, Smith was nominated by Queen Elizabeth II for national end-of-year awards.[8]
Smith was the first coach in European history to have won both the Club European Championship and the European Nation's 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. [8]
Smith went on to become the owner of several professional sports teams, including the National Champion and European Champion 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.[citation needed] He declared his belief that the club could reach Division One (now the EFL Championship) within three years.[9] The club was in administration when he took over, and close to folding with more than £1 million in debt. He was credited with rescuing Chester from the brink of bankruptcy by supporters at the time, and announced an intention to appoint three supporters to the club board of directors, which he did.[10]
At the time of Smith's takeover, most veteran players had been sold and the remaining players were mostly young.[citation needed] 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.[citation needed]
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.[citation needed] As a result, the club was out of debt for the first time in at least many decades. [citation needed]
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.[citation needed] Drawn against Manchester City, they only lost in the final minutes after the score was tied at 1–1 with eleven minutes left.[citation needed] While scouting Man City ahead of the match, Smith, who came up with a very good strategy[neutrality is disputed] 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.[original research?] This skill would benefit the team considerably[quantify] the following season, when Smith would scout all of Chester's impending Cup opponents.[citation needed]
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,[neutrality is disputed] 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.[12]
In late December 1999, with Chester out of debt and on firm financial footing for the first time[citation needed] in decades thanks to Smith's tight monetary policies,[neutrality is disputed] Smith chose to step down as manager.[citation needed] 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.[citation needed]
With the excellent improvements[peacockprose] 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.[citation needed] 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.[citation needed] The club also paid for a proper[neutrality is disputed] training facility with two excellent[neutrality is disputed] training pitches for Atkins' team, while Smith's team had endured[neutrality is disputed] training on a free piece of unlined grass in the middle of a horse racetrack.[citation needed] However, despite these many[quantify] 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.[citation needed]
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.[quantify]
Going into the final game of the season, Chester had pulled themselves up to 23rd in the 24-team division, and faced a three-way battle with Shrewsbury Town and Carlisle United to avoid the drop to the Conference.[13] With fifteen minutes left in the season, Chester were above both Shrewsbury and Carlisle, but conceded a late goal against Peterborough United that was enough to see them relegated from the Football League on goal difference.[14][15]
Atkins left, and fan favourite Graham Barrow returned as manager. He completely[peacockprose] rebuilt the team, and in the 2000–01 season, his side managed a respectable ninth place, reached the third round of the FA Cup for the second successive season (in a controversial loss to Blackburn Rovers), made it to the semi-finals of the FA Trophy, and won the Conference League Cup, the first silverware for the club in over 70 years. During the season, Smith served as Barrow's scout and set-piece strategist for all Cup opponents, travelling on his own to scout opponents at least once or twice before Chester played them.[citation needed] In this scouting role, Smith utilized his American football background, where every American Football play is planned and choreographed from a set position in intricate detail, to focus on the development of creative set pieces, both corners and free kicks, for all the Cup matches that were based upon the weaknesses he perceived in the opponents' defensive alignment.[citation needed]
In addition, Barrow approached Smith at the start of the season, and asked him to watch the first half of every Chester match from up in the stands as a scout would, and then report what he saw to Barrow at halftime while Barrow was walking from the pitch to the dressing room.[citation needed] This good working relationship between them continued throughout the season.[original research?]
In spite of this success, ahead of the 2001–02 season, Smith appointed Gordon Hill, an ex-Manchester United and ex-England player who was a personal friend, to become the new manager.[16] Chester made a dreadful start to the season under Hill, winning only one of their first twelve matches. Smith finally sold his interest in the club to Stephen Vaughan and left at the start of October 2001, with the club completely out of debt other than what it owed him.[17]
In 2003, a British court ordered Chester City to repay £300,000 in unpaid loans to Smith and his family. However, Smith still wanted to help the club, and so he accepted a settlement of far less than half that amount.[citation needed]
In 2004, Chester City FC finished first in their division, and was promoted again into the English League Third Division, thereby at that time fully completing the financial and on-field renovation of the club that had begun when Smith first purchased the club in an effort to rescue it from being closed down in 1999.[citation needed]
AppleMagazine.com wrote in its April 23, 2021 edition that Ted Lasso "was actually inspired by the story of Terry Smith, an American gridiron football coach who took over the English association football team Chester City F.C. and subsequently installed himself as the first-team coach".[18]
The writers and actors of the Ted Lasso series often spoke about Terry Smith before the series began.[citation needed] In this interview and AppleTV+ video, Brendan Hunt, the outstanding[peacockprose] co-creator of Ted Lasso, and actor who portrays assistant manager Coach Beard in the Ted Lasso series, discusses a 1999 FourFourTwo soccer magazine article about Terry Smith selling the American dream in a positive way, including a photo in the article of Smith wrapped in an American flag. This 22 year-old magazine article was published in England in September, 1999, when Smith was being the first American to ever manage and coach a professional English soccer team.[19]
In March 2025, Smith purchased the Brantford Red Sox, a legendary[peacockprose] 115-year-old professional baseball team in Ontario Canada's Intercounty Baseball League that has won a record 15 League Championships, but has been struggling in last place and near financial closure for the past several years.[20]
With six home games remaining in the 2025 season, the Red Sox were on a ten-game losing streak and had a home record for the entire season of one win and fourteen losses, with a thirteen-game home losing streak. It was at this low point[neutrality is disputed] that Smith took over as the team's manager/head coach, and his Red Sox team responded by going undefeated and winning all six of its remaining home games with Smith as manager, the longest home winning streak the Red Sox team has had since 2004.[citation needed]
Personal life
Smith purchased the Mountain Television Network in 2008 for only a $10,000 deposit because the television station and network was ready to be closed down and go off the air. Smith transformed the station and network by producing one hundred hours each week of their own new television programming, the most of any television station in America, and by expanding the station and network from being broadcast on only one cable network in only two counties of one state, to being on sixteen cable networks that broadcast across seven states in the entire Southeast of the U.S.
Smith's overriding rule in providing this all-inclusive coverage was that MTN and all of its staff were only allowed to broadcast positive television shows and positive news stories and coverage. Unlike all other television stations across the country that usually focus on only negative news stories, Smith focused MTN entirely on everything positive and great that was happening in America.
Smith implemented his only positive network rules so that even the MTN news broadcasts were only allowed to cover positive news stories. He even created a special "What A Wonderful World" news segment on the Evening News every night, where an especially positive news story was told and shown footage of while the musical background of the story had Louis Armstrong singing the song, "What A Wonderful World".
With this never-ending positive goal in mind, MTN worked 7 days per week, 24 hours per day, and literally 365 days per year in an effort to cover everything positive that was happening in the region and across America.
As a result, MTN produced more hours of its own television content during these years than any other television station in the United States.
Throughout these years, one of the television shows that Smith created and personally hosted was titled 'The Veteran's Voice' so he could honor and show his great respect for America's incredible military veterans. Smith worked with WW II veteran and author Ken Wiley, a World War II veteran of seven D-Day battles in the Pacific where he drove the LCVP landing boats right up onto the D-Day beaches, as well as with World War II veterans HC Moretz, Norman Isenhour, and Sam Wotherspoon, and World War II historian Keith Buchanan, to film and broadcast more than three hundred two-hour life story interviews with World War II, Korean War, and Vietnam War military veterans.
Smith produced and broadcast more than 300 Veterans' Voice television shows, and through this work he put together the largest library of personally told American World War II history that has ever been compiled anywhere in America or the world. He also provided DVD copies of every interview to every veteran's family member, including sons, daughters, wives, husbands, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, brothers and sisters, so that every veteran's family member would forever have a DVD copy of the life story of their American hero.
A collection of these television shows and DVDs are archived at libraries and war museums in Washington DC and across the United States, including in the Watauga County Library.[21][22][23]
Smith also helped to organize two World War II Symposiums, one at Appalachian State University in 2012, and a second Symposium at Watauga High School in 2013, both of which were designed to recognize, honor, and show our great respect to our American heroes of America's Greatest Generation.
Smith became a full-time professor at Lees-McRae College in North Carolina, teaching eight courses every semester in the School of Business and Management. He was promoted to become the Head of both the Sport Management Department and the Health and Fitness Department within the School of Business and Management. He was also promoted to become the Faculty Athletic Representative where he served in the President's cabinet and reported directly to Dr. Barry Buxton, the outstanding Lees-McRae College President.[24][25]
Smith became a Director for Elizabethton High School in Tennessee in 2017. Under Smith's leadership, the Bartleby program and Elizabethton High School were selected as one of the 10 XQ Super Schools in the entire United States in 2018. Smith then wrote a grant document describing and outlining their program, school courses, and educational methods, a document that resulted in their program and school receiving a $2.3 million grant from the XQ Foundation.[26]
With the outstanding success of Elizabethton High School, Smith was invited by the United States Congress, and by U.S. Congressman Phil Roe of Tennessee's First District, to come to Washington, D.C. for Smith to speak on Capitol Hill to the United States Congress about the innovative and very successful educational methods Smith had created at Elizabethton High School, and to have Smith speak with Congress about the future of education in America. Smith was one of only four public school educators in the entire United States to be honored with this invitation and achievement.[27][28][29]
From 2022 through 2024, Smith became the president of the non-profit NFL Alumni Association for Washington DC, and during these years he did work for and raised money for a large number of homeless, financially and physically disadvantaged, children, and family charities and non-profits throughout Washington DC and nationwide, including for Toys For Tots and for Foster Children organizations.
In this role, working with DC Divas owner Rich Daniel, Smith initiated a partnership between the NFL Alumni Association and the Women's Football Alliance, a women's professional tackle football league, creating a close relationship that would recognize and honor women football players and women athletes by having the WFA women be honored as full playing members of the NFL Alumni Association.
In October 2024, Smith became the president of the Women's Football Alliance, a nationwide League of more than 60 teams that plays in three Divisions across the United States, and plays its National Championships at the NFL Hall of Fame Stadium in Canton, Ohio, in games broadcast on ESPN.
In this role, and with Smith's and the WFA's goal being to "Positively Change Women's Lives", he created a partnership with edX, the worldwide leader in online education, that allows all 3,000 WFA women players and coaches to take any education courses they would like from the thousands of courses that edX offers from schools like Harvard, the London School of Economics, and MIT. These courses provide education and knowledge for the WFA players and coaches that will benefit them in their personal lives and in their future careers after they have finished playing football.
Working with edX, Smith also created five unique course pathways that are specific for the WFA players and coaches, which include Women in Leadership, Entrepreneurship, Personal Finance, Public Speaking, and NIL Branding.
Working with commissioner Lisa King, Smith also did work to initiate the WFA's expansion into Canada, the creation and development of WFA Properties and WFA Films, and the creation of the WFA Flag National Pro Tour, which is a nationwide and international Flag Football competition.
In March 2025, Smith purchased the Brantford Red Sox, a legendary 115-year-old professional baseball team in Ontario Canada's Intercounty Baseball League that has won a record 15 League Championships, but has been struggling in last place and near financial closure for the past several years.[30]
With six home games remaining in the 2025 season, the Red Sox were on a ten-game losing streak and had a home record for the entire season of one win and fourteen losses, with a thirteen-game home losing streak. It was at this low point that Smith took over as the team's manager/head coach, and his Red Sox team responded by going undefeated and winning all six of its remaining home games with Smith as manager, the longest home winning streak the Red Sox team has had since 2004.
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