Lee Roy Smith Sr.’s name came up over the weekend. I was at the state basketball tournament, talking old times with former Lawton Constitution sports editor Joey Goodman, and Joey mentioned how the Oklahoma Secondary School Activities Association would hire Smith to run the state wrestling tournament, because he knew how to do it better than anyone else.
Smith was self-taught. He knew nothing of wrestling when his oldest son, Lee Roy Jr., threw a kid down on the playground of their Del City elementary school and promptly was invited to join the wrestling team. Lee Roy Sr.