When John Smith took the helm of the winningest program in the history of collegiate athletics prior to the 1991-92 season, he was just a young 26-year-old from Del City, Oklahoma.
Of course, he was a former two-time NCAA wrestling national champion and Olympic gold medalist, but Smith was so young when he inherited the Oklahoma State head coaching job that he was still wrestling and hadn’t even won his second Olympic gold medal yet.
Smith has now coached at OSU for more than half of his life.
That first season seemed like a long time ago, and that young 26-year-old has molded himself into arguably the greatest coach in OSU wrestling history.