Holloway Smith was born in Kentucky in 1896. The second black ISC football player, three years after Jack Trice, Smith came to ISC from Michigan State to play football and earn his B.S. in Agriculture Education. He had a successful football career despite being barred from playing in the Missouri Valley Conference, as they had an agreement with Southern schools to not allow African American students to play. This same unfair treatment would bar him from playing against Oklahoma State as well, a detriment to ISC.
After graduating from ISC, Smith moved to Marianna, Arkansas, where he worked for 20 years, serving as a teacher, then master teacher, and then as principal. Later, he served as the state supervisor for the National Youth Association in Arkansas, a New Deal program that provided education, work, and housing for youth ages 16-24 during the Great Depression. Using that experience, Smith became a National Director for the U.S.O.
Later In life, Smith moved to Monterey, California, where he operated a restaurant, before moving to Reno, Nevada in the early 1960s. He died in Reno in 1970 at the age of 73 and was buried in the Mountain View Cemetery there.
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Photo Credit: The Bomb
