By JOHN JAMES MARSHALL, Journal Sports
(EDITOR’S NOTE: This profile originally ran in the SBJ last Aug. 1. Today in Dayton, Ohio, Airline graduate Byron Smith leads Prairie View A&M into a First Four matchup with Lehigh. The Panthers beat Southern 72-66 to win the SWAC Tournament last week. Today’s game tips off at 5:40 CDT and is on truTV.)
Not many high school kids have it all figured out during their teenage years. There’s too much present to be worrying about the future. They’ll figure it out when it comes time to figure it out.
If you are surprised that former Airline basketball star Byron Smith is still involved in basketball almost four decades after he had one of the greatest scoring seasons in Shreveport-Bossier history, don’t be.
Smith certainly isn’t.
“I always thought the sky’s the limit,” Smith said. “I definitely had visions of doing some things connected with basketball, even at a young age. I always wanted basketball to be a part of my life for the rest of my life.”
Smith is the only Shreveport-Bossier product to currently be a head basketball coach at the Division 1 level. He will begin his ninth full season at Prairie View A&M, where has already been a three-time SWAC regular season champion and made an NCAA Tournament appearance in 2019. He is a three-time conference Coach of the Year.
He took over at Prairie View during 2015-16 in the midst of some in-season turmoil. “It wasn’t the best job in the country by any stretch when I took over,” Smith said. “But we were able to have some success and and built a program.”
Two years after he took over, Smith led Prairie View to perhaps the best three-year stretch in the program’s history, with conference records of 17-1, 14-1 and 13-0. Since then, not so much. The Panthers were 5-27 a year ago.
“Obviously with COVID, things got a little rocky,” Smith said. “There’s been a lot of turnover. We changed (university) presidents. I’ve had six different athletic directors. It’s been difficult with the NIL stuff going on and us not adjusting to the new normal. We’ve fallen behind a little but I think better days are ahead for us at Prairie View.”
There were plenty of good days for Smith and Airline basketball in the 1986-87 season when he averaged 30.5 points per game and was named to the All-State team. He was the first Shreveport-Bossier player to average 30 points per game since Robert Parish in 1971-72.
“That was a phenomenal feat, even if I do have to say so myself,” Smith said. “Especially with no 3-point line back then.”
In high school, he wasn’t all that concerned about his scoring records … until he was.
“I wasn’t much of a basketball historian like I am now,” Smith said. “Once it was brought to my attention, I thought it was something that could propel me into the future. It was something that I felt was attainable.”
In the previous year, the Vikings had gone 30-0 in the regular season, only to lose in the opening round. In Smith’s senior year, it happened again. Airline (26-5) took another first-round loss — the fourth opening round loss in a row.
Seems strange to say, but the year before Smith’s record-setting senior year, he was almost an afterthought on the team as a junior.
“I didn’t get much of an opportunity (as a junior),” he says. “We had some really great players (including future NBA player Larry Robinson) and it was just a numbers deal. I’m not saying I was chasing attention, but (the scoring record) was something I felt could really put me out there for college recruiters.”
Which is what happened. After Airline, he played a year at Northwestern State, finishing 15th in the conference in scoring. But after the season, the Demons had a coaching change, as well as issues with the NCAA, and Smith felt it was best to move on.
“I felt like I was still chasing greatness,” he said. “I wanted to showcase what I could really, really do. I felt like I could play at a higher level.”
He actually placed a call on his own to the University of Houston (“I had always been a Phi Slamma Jamma fan growing up,” he said), but he was given the don’t-call-us-we’ll-call-you response.
Instead, he went to Tyler Junior College. And, as luck would have it, he caught the eye of a UH recruiter, who was scouting another player.
“By the grace of God, I fell right into their lap,” he said.
Smith played his final two seasons at Houston, averaging 16.3 and 17.7 points per game (both putting him in the top 5 in the Southwest Conference).
That’s when his basketball adventures really took hold. He’s had plenty of jobs in plenty of places, all with one thing in common — basketball.
He played six seasons professionally (in Australia, Greece and Turkey) and then worked as an entrepreneur coaching skills and fundamentals in the Houston area. He became an assistant coach in 1998 on the staffs at Houston, Texas Southern, McClellan Community College, and Texas A&M.
Smith was even a head coach of one of the Harlem Globetrotters touring teams for a year (2002-03).
It’s been almost 40 years since Smith lit up local gyms in a season that still ranks as one of the greatest ever. But that was only the beginning of his basketball journey.
“I’m blessed beyond measure,” Smith said. “I’ve had a great career and I still think there’s more left in the tank for me to do some really, really good things. I’m thankful to be in the position I’m in today.
“I’m living the dream.”
Contact JJ at johnjamesmarshall@yahoo.com