Bobby Smith

Robert Smith... sports family (soccer/lacrosse father Hap, football/soccer/softball/ brother Barry)... he was born in Vancouver during the 1940-41 soccer season when his father Hap played for Vancouver Radials FC...

honoured by the Canada Soccer Hall of Fame as a player... honoured by the Soccer Hall of Fame of British Columbia...

a three-time BC Province Cup winner (1960, 1964, 1968) and one-time national runner up (1968)... a two-time Pacific Coast League winner (1959-60, 1969-70) and two-time Pacific Coast International Championship winner for the J.F. Kennedy Trophy (1966, 1967)... a five-time all-star selection over an eight-year span from 1960 to 1967... over the course of his career, he scored 160 goals in the Pacific Coast Soccer League (he was the seventh player to reach the 100-goal milestone on 21 November 1965; he was the third player to reach the 150-goal milestone on 21 February 1971)... he retired as the Pacific Coast League’s all-time scoring leader (161 goals from 1958 to 1972)... he led the Pacific Coast League in scoring three times and was the league’s top scorer in the 1960s with 133 goals scored... he was Columbus FC’s top goalscorer across their Pacific Coast League history (89 goals scored from 1962-63 to 1969-70)... he was North Shore United FC’s third-best goalscorer across their post-1939 Pacific Coast League history (67 goals scored across two stints, from 1959 to 1961-62 and from 1970-71 to 1971-72, third best behind Jimmy Spencer’s 120 goals), notably the team’s top goalscorer in three-straight seasons from 1959-60 to 1961-62... he was Canada’s top scorer in Kennedy Cup competition with nine goals (1964-1967)...

said Pietro Mainardi after signing Smith in mid December 1962, “who says there isn’t a Santa Claus. Getting Smith makes it a real merry Christmas... he will add a lot of scoring punch to our forward line. We now have in centre Fred Bundschoks and Smith a potent one-two punch”... said father Hap Smith after Bobby’s record five-goal performance in the 1966 Pacific Coast International Championship, “I’ve been a member of one Canadian soccer championship team, but this has to be my proudest moment”... as noted in a 1967 all-star program, he was a player who “packs one of the hardest and deadliest shots in (the Pacific Coast League)”... wrote Jeff Cross in 1967, “Bobby Smith is one of the most exciting players to reach senior level in recent years”... wrote Jeff Cross in 1968, “even his critics admit one thing - Bobby Smith knows where the opposing goal is”...

said Gene Vazzoler in 2018, “Bobby Smith was a direct player with a terrific shot. He was very good on free kicks and around the net, he was in the right place at the right time. Scorers seem to be able to get free from their defenders”... said Peter Greco in 2018, “Bobby Smith was a natural-born goalscorer. He had some good talent around him (because) we were almost like an all-star team. He had a good shot and seemed to be in the right place at the right time. He was just a natural goalscorer with a very good shot”... said Giorgio Zambrano in 2018, Bobby Smith “had a great shot. He was very strong physically and good with both feet. That’s how he got his goals from outside the 18 if you allowed him to shoot he was unbelievable”... remembered Giorgio Zambrano in 2018, “I remember Bobby Smith very well (because) in the dressing room he would tape both feet, it was like he had a cast on. I would ask him ‘how can you feel the ball’ and he would say ‘I don’t have to feel it, when I have it I just shoot it’. They would spend half an hour to tape up his feet before a match”... said Roy Nosella in 2018, “Bobby Smith was a bit of a cowboy, lovely guy, good sense of humour, never took anything serious... but he could produce on the pitch. He could crack a ball from wherever you wanted”... said Dan Comuzzi in 2018, “Bobby Smith had a powerful shot and he seemed to be in the right place at the right time. He had a nose for the ball and where it was going to be”... said Sam Lenarduzzi in 2018, “Bobby Smith was very quick and he could score goals from everywhere. He was one of those natural-type goalscorers”... said Len Brown in 2018, “Bobby Smith would tie his boots by taking the laces and putting them behind the back two cleats to anchor them before he would tie them. This was the first time I was playing with him, so I asked him and he said ‘try it (because) it is way more comfortable and less lace to interfere.’ Ever since then, I always did the same”...

said Gary Stevens in 2018, “Bobby Smith was really hard to play against and I ended up playing against him most of the time. He gravitated out to the left wing and he would come in from the wing to the centre. My job, when he got into our last third, was to go after him and I could stay with him. He was good with the ball and if you gave him four or five feet he would get a shot away and he had a really good shot”... also said Gary Stevens in 2018, “Bobby Smith had a really good sense around the 18-yard line. If a little opening came, he could hit it and he could hit it hard. He hit the ball as good as anyone”... said Robert Allen in 2018, “Bobby Smith was a very good player, one of the best from our era... he had a hell of shot, he was fast, and he was a good ball handler”... said Metro Gerela in 2018, “Bobby Smith was a very humble player who had surprisingly quick feet. He was smart and always a gentleman, a very clean, respectable player. He was a guy that I admired. He was unbelievable. When he had great players around him, it blossomed his ability to score goals”... said Neil Ellett in 2018, “Bobby Smith was pretty quick and shifty and if he got anywhere near the net within 30 or 35 yards, you just had to keep him off his left foot because he had a cannon of a left foot. He scored a ton of goals”...

said Glen Johnson in 2018, “Bobby Smith was a really, big strong, fast, skillful player. He was a really good player”... said Bruce Twamley in 2018, “Bobby Smith was a big towering centre forward. He was a no-nonsense kind of guy. He was good in the air and really brave. He was a good one”...