Craig Smith, a breathing encyclopedia of sports knowledge, will be inducted into the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association’s Hall of Fame. The former Seattle Times reporter produced the popular “Sideline Smitty” column about high-school sports where he’d provide trivia and answers to reader questions.
Smith retired in 2008, spending three decades covering everything from golf and hydroplanes to the Seahawks.
“As a sports writer, I have found prep sports to be fresher, more fun, often more interesting, and, in their own way, more important, than college or professional sports,” Smith wrote in his final column. “I remember what Washington State basketball coach Dick Bennett once said: ‘High-school coaches are most important because they can do the most good.