Lyall Smith
Encyclopedia
Lyall F. Smith was an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 sportswriter
Sports journalism
Sports journalism is a form of journalism that reports on sports topics and events.While the sports department within some newspapers has been mockingly called the toy department, because sports journalists do not concern themselves with the 'serious' topics covered by the news desk, sports...

 and sports editor. He was the sports editor and columnist for the Detroit Free Press
Detroit Free Press
The Detroit Free Press is the largest daily newspaper in Detroit, Michigan, USA. The Sunday edition is entitled the Sunday Free Press. It is sometimes informally referred to as the "Freep"...

 from 1945 to 1965 and the president of the Baseball Writers Association of America
Baseball Writers Association of America
The Baseball Writers' Association of America is a professional association for baseball journalists writing for daily newspapers, magazines and qualifying Web sites. The BBWAA was founded on October 14, 1908, to improve working conditions for sportswriters in the early part of the 20th century...

 from 1955 to 1956. He later served as the public relations director and business manager for the Detroit Lions
Detroit Lions
The Detroit Lions are a professional American football team based in Detroit, Michigan. They are members of the North Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League , and play their home games at Ford Field in Downtown Detroit.Originally based in Portsmouth, Ohio and...

 from 1965 to 1980.

Early years

A native of Peoria, Illinois
Peoria, Illinois
Peoria is the largest city on the Illinois River and the county seat of Peoria County, Illinois, in the United States. It is named after the Peoria tribe. As of the 2010 census, the city was the seventh-most populated in Illinois, with a population of 115,007, and is the third-most populated...

, he attended Bradley University
Bradley University
Bradley University, founded in 1897, is a private, co-educational university located in Peoria, Illinois. It is a small institution with an enrollment of approximately 6,100 undergraduate and postgraduate students and a full-time faculty of approximately 350....

 and the University of Illinois. He was inducted into the Bradley University Athletic Hall of Fame in 1950.

Smith began his career in journalism as a reporter for the Chicago Daily News
Chicago Daily News
The Chicago Daily News was an afternoon daily newspaper published between 1876 and 1978 in Chicago, Illinois.-History:The Daily News was founded by Melville E. Stone, Percy Meggy, and William Dougherty in 1875 and began publishing early the next year...

. He spent seven years with the Chicago Daily News from 1938 to 1945. He claimed to have given the "Whiz Kids" nickname to the 1943 Illinois basketball team.

Detroit Free Press

In March 1945, Smith was hired as the sports editor and columnist at the Detroit Free Press
Detroit Free Press
The Detroit Free Press is the largest daily newspaper in Detroit, Michigan, USA. The Sunday edition is entitled the Sunday Free Press. It is sometimes informally referred to as the "Freep"...

, a position he held until 1965.

During his time with the Free Press Smith was included in the committee of baseball writers charged with selecting the American League Most Valuable Player.

In 1947, Smith became involved in a controversy over competing claims to the national collegiate football championship by undefeated teams from Notre Dame
1947 Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team
The 1947 Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team represented the University of Notre Dame during the 1947 college football season. The Irish, coached by Frank Leahy, ended the season with 9 wins and no losses, winning the national championship. The 1947 team became the sixth Irish team to win the...

 and Michigan
1947 Michigan Wolverines football team
The 1947 Michigan Wolverines football team, nicknamed the "Mad Magicians", represented the University of Michigan in the 1947 college football season. Coached by Fritz Crisler, the Wolverines finished undefeated and untied with a 10–0 record...

. Notre Dame was ranked No. 1 in the final regular season AP Poll
AP Poll
The Associated Press College Poll refers to weekly rankings of the top 25 NCAA teams in one of three Division I college sports: football, men's basketball and women's basketball. The rankings are compiled by polling sportswriters across the nation...

, but Michigan went on to defeat USC by a score of 49-0 in the Rose Bowl
1948 Rose Bowl
The 1948 Rose Bowl was a college football bowl game played on January 1, 1948. It was the 34th Rose Bowl Game, and the second since the Big Nine Conference and the Pacific Coast Conference reached an exclusive agreement to match their champions in the game each year. In the game, the Michigan...

. Smith urged the Associated Press
Associated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...

 to conduct a post-bowl poll, arguing that Michigan had defeated three common opponents by larger margins than Notre Dame and had a tougher schedule. After Smith's comments, the AP agreed to conduct a post-bowl poll, the first of its kind, and Michigan was selected as the national champion in that poll by a vote of 226 to 119. After the results were tallied, Smith wrote in The Sporting News, "Michigan won another football battle!"

Also in January 1947, Smith broke the story of the Detroit Tigers
Detroit Tigers
The Detroit Tigers are a Major League Baseball team located in Detroit, Michigan. One of the American League's eight charter franchises, the club was founded in Detroit in as part of the Western League. The Tigers have won four World Series championships and have won the American League pennant...

' decision to sell Hank Greenberg
Hank Greenberg
Henry Benjamin "Hank" Greenberg , nicknamed "Hammerin' Hank" or "The Hebrew Hammer," was an American professional baseball player in the 1930s and 1940s. A first baseman primarily for the Detroit Tigers, Greenberg was one of the premier power hitters of his generation...

 to the Pittsburgh Pirates
Pittsburgh Pirates
The Pittsburgh Pirates are a Major League Baseball club based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. They play in the Central Division of the National League, and are five-time World Series Champions...

. Smith reported that Tigers owner Walter O. Briggs had read comments from Greenberg about his desire to play for the Yankees and concluded that "Greenberg was ungrateful, unkind and unfair to Detroit," and ordered the team's general manager to "get rid of Hank."

In August 1948, three days after the death of Babe Ruth
Babe Ruth
George Herman Ruth, Jr. , best known as "Babe" Ruth and nicknamed "the Bambino" and "the Sultan of Swat", was an American Major League baseball player from 1914–1935...

 from cancer, Smith proposed that Major League Baseball designate September 30, 1948 as "Babe Ruth Day" and that all proceeds from games played on that day be donated to cancer research.

Smith's 1948 tribute to Harry Heilmann
Harry Heilmann
Harry Edwin Heilmann , nicknamed “Slug,” was a Major League Baseball player who played 17 seasons with the Detroit Tigers and Cincinnati Reds . He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1952.Heilmann was a line drive hitter who won four American League batting crowns: in 1921, 1923, 1925 and...

, former batting champ and radio voice of the tigers, was published in The Sporting News. Smith wrote:
"[H]e is so good that if he gets any better there'll be no more attendance records set at Briggs Stadium. After all, who wants to leave that nice, soft easy chair to be pushed around with 50,000 other fans when he can stay right at home and get a word picture ... with anectodes ... of the game. Only thing wrong with his broadcasts is that you hate to get out of your chair and rush to the ice box to get a bottle of that cool stuff he mentions now and then."


In October 1954, Smith was elected as the vice president of the Baseball Writers Association of America
Baseball Writers Association of America
The Baseball Writers' Association of America is a professional association for baseball journalists writing for daily newspapers, magazines and qualifying Web sites. The BBWAA was founded on October 14, 1908, to improve working conditions for sportswriters in the early part of the 20th century...

.

In the spring of 1955, Smith asked readers to submit ideas for a nickname for the Tigers' star right-fielder Al Kaline
Al Kaline
Albert William "Al" Kaline is a former Major League Baseball right fielder. He is a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame. Kaline played his entire 22-year baseball career with the Detroit Tigers. Kaline still works for the Tigers as a front office official. Because of his lengthy career and...

. From the submissions, Smith chose "Salty," which the reader explained, "After all, salt means alkaline."

In September 1955, he was elected as the president of the Baseball Writers Association of America
Baseball Writers Association of America
The Baseball Writers' Association of America is a professional association for baseball journalists writing for daily newspapers, magazines and qualifying Web sites. The BBWAA was founded on October 14, 1908, to improve working conditions for sportswriters in the early part of the 20th century...

 and served in that role in 1956. Smith also served as a director of the Football Writers Association of America
Football Writers Association of America
The Football Writers Association of America is one of the organizations whose College Football All-America Team is recognized by the NCAA...

 for several years.

Smith was chosen as the chief scorer for the 1956 World Series
1956 World Series
The 1956 World Series of Major League Baseball was played between the New York Yankees and the defending champion Brooklyn Dodgers during the month of October 1956. The Series was a rematch of the 1955 World Series...

, and was the scorer for Don Larsen
Don Larsen
Donald James Larsen is a former Major League Baseball pitcher. During a 15-year baseball career, he pitched from 1953-67 for seven different teams. Larsen is best known for pitching the sixth perfect game in baseball history, doing so in game 5 of the 1956 World Series...

's perfect game in the World Series. Fellow sportswriter Arthur Daley noted, "By the ninth inning, the most nervous people in the ball park, bar none, were the three official scorers, Lyall Smith of Detroit and his two assistants ... They were terrified that a questionable decision would confront them and ruin Larsen's performance for posterity." Larsen, too, acknowledged that he was not the only nervous person at Yankee Stadium as the game progressed, acknowledging the scrutiny that would be given to any close calls by Smith as he sat in the press box as the official scorer.

In May 1965, Smith was chosen to serve a five-year term on the board of directors of the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame
Michigan Sports Hall of Fame
The Michigan Sports Hall of Fame is a Hall of Fame to honor Michigan sports people. It was organized in 1954 by Michigan Lieutenant Governor Philip Hart, Michigan State University athletic director Biggie Munn, president of the Greater Michigan Foundation Donald Weeks, general manager of the...

.

Detroit Lions

In September 1965, Smith left the Free Press to accept a position as the public relations director for the Detroit Lions
Detroit Lions
The Detroit Lions are a professional American football team based in Detroit, Michigan. They are members of the North Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League , and play their home games at Ford Field in Downtown Detroit.Originally based in Portsmouth, Ohio and...

. In January 1967, Smith took on the additional title and responsibility as the Lions' business manager. Over the next 15 years, Smith was employed by the Lions as their public relations director, business manager, and director of marketing. When the Lions moved to the Pontiac Silverdome
Pontiac Silverdome
The Silverdome is a domed stadium located in the city of Pontiac, Michigan, USA, which sits on . It was the largest stadium in the National Football League until FedEx Field in suburban Washington, D.C...

 in 1975, Smith was responsible for coordinating the move and organized an exhibition day game in August 1975 for fans to orient themselves and tour the new facility. He remained with the Lions throughout the 1970s.

Selected articles by Smith

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