Lewis Smith, recruited as a top long-distance runner from nearby Baltimore City College, ended up as a Loyola swimmer almost by accident, he says.
The swim coach saw him in the pool one day and told him to swim a couple laps on his back as fast as he could. When he was the done, the coach told him he'd better be at practice the next day. Eventually, Smith was an All-America in the backstroke.
The "Golden Greyhound" of this year's induction class had a similar experience a few years later, when he was stationed in Louisiana in the Army. He was again "recruited," this time to the United States Modern Pentathlon team. He'd never fenced or ridden a horse (two of the five events), but his swimming and running times were so good that he was sent to Texas to learn in 1965.
If it was a couple years later, Smith could have been an Olympian. Unfortunately, the first of his two tours in Vietnam got in the way.
After leaving the Army in 1972, he returned to the military 10 years later and retired as a Lt. Colonel in 1993. After that, among other things, Smith taught physical education and coached in the Baltimore City Public Schools. He also was the athletic director at York High School in Pennsylvania.
At Loyola, Smith was a four-year letter winner in both cross country and track and field and earned two letters as a swimmer. He captained the cross country team as a junior and senior and was a member of Mason-Dixon Conference 4xMile relay championship teams in both 1959 and 1960.
"Loyola was a place of great camaraderie," Smith says. "It was small. You knew almost everyone and all of the teams were great at supporting each other."
Smith is the father of 11 children, ranging in age from 52 to 33; three of his seven sons attended West Point. He continued to run in long-distance races, including three marathons, for 45 years after graduating from Loyola.
