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Sept. 21, 1999
In the spring of 1998, Maryland lacrosse coach Dick Edell won his first ACC Tournament Championship. After coaching the Terrapins for 15 years, it’s safe to say the tournament title was long overdue for Edell. Since 1973 he longed for that day, so naturally the long-time coach was ecstatic and overcome with emotion. Yet, the first thing he talked about after the game was not how well his team played, or how happy he was. Instead, Edell expressed his thoughts and concerns for Doyle Smith, who missed the tournament due to illness.
This past spring, the Virginia men’s lacrosse team won the 1999 NCAA Championship. For the seniors, the win exacted a heartbreaking overtime loss to Princeton in the 1996 NCAA Finals. The driving force behind their title run came not from a desire for personal vendication, but in honor of Doyle Smith. Under their jerseys, each senior wore a special T-shirt that bore the initials EDS (Edward Doyle Smith) and NCAA 1999 on the front and, in big, bold, letters, the phrase “This Run’s For You” on the back.
The fact Doyle Smith is in the foreground of everyone’s thoughts during such major lacrosse events as the ACC Tournament Championship and the NCAA Finals speaks to his monumental place in the game. This past summer, Smith retired from his position as Virginia’ s associate athletic media relations director. A fixture in the UVa athletic department since 1968 and an icon in the lacrosse world, to say he will be missed does not do him justice.
“Doyle Smith is one of those rare people who adds something to everyone’ s life that he touches and to every professional situation in which he is engaged,” said Virginia Athletic Director Terry Holland.
What Smith has done for lacrosse is truly beyond words.
Often a person is described as having “done so much for the game,” but at times this phrase can appear with undeserved regularity. Yet, for Smith it hardly describes how responsible he has been for where the sport of lacrosse now stands.
“To be honest, I can’t imagine how lacrosse will fill the void,” said Virginia men’ s lacrosse coach Dom Starsia. “I’ m not trying to be melodramatic, but he’s such an advocate for our sport on the administrative side. He is an icon in our sport, and there are few people in any endeavor in which one name tells you all you need to know. Doyle carries that kind of significance in our lacrosse world.”
Sports fans often say that star players like Wayne Gretzky and Micheal Jordan rewrote the record book. In Smith’ s case, he actually wrote the record book for lacrosse, not to mention the statistics section of the NCAA’ s Lacrosse Rule Book. The NCAA officially began keeping statistics for lacrosse several years ago. Before then, Smith did it – all of it.
“The amount of work that he has done for lacrosse is amazing,” said Virginia Athletic Media Relations Director Rich Murray. “He’ s forgotten more lacrosse than I will ever know.”
There is an oft-repeated story involving Smith that circulates the lacrosse world like an urban legend. During a game against Johns Hopkins, Virginia scored a goal as the extra-man penalty expired. A Hopkins player had just entered the playing field as the goal was scored. Myron Ripley, an official score keeper for Virginia lacrosse games since the 1980s, and the Hopkins scorer disagreed over whether or not the goal should be recorded as an extra-man goal.
“By the rule book, it’ s still an extra-man goal until the player that was in the box is back in the flow of play,” said Ripley. “I said it was an extra man goal. The woman from Hopkins said it was an even man goal. I could tell Doyle, who was right beside me, was very troubled by the conversation.”
As the exchange between the two continued, Doyle eventually decided to put an end to the argument.
“Finally, Doyle spoke up and said, ‘it was an extra man goal,'” recalled Ripley. “She responded ‘how are you so sure of that,’ and he simply returned, ‘I wrote the rule.'”
On top of what he has done for the game of lacrosse throughout his career, Smith’ s commitment to the University of Virginia goes beyond the standards of excellence. To define him as someone who merely compiles statistics or acts as a liaison between Virginia sports teams and the media fails to convey exactly what he means to UVa. His accomplishments over the past 31 years rank second to none.
“Doyle’ s dedication to this University and our department can not be replaced and we will miss him greatly,” said Holland. “We are pleased that Doyle will stay in Charlottesville and know we will still see him regularly.”
Smith has served the University loyally and with the utmost class. Even after being diagnosed with Parkinson’ s disease several years ago, Doyle never let his condition slow him down or take away from his ability to do his job, and do it well.
“I can’t begin to appreciate what it has been like for Doyle,” said Murray. “He’s been able to work through this, and I’m not sure that anybody else would have been able to do it the way that he has.”
Last winter, when Smith announced he would retire following the 1999 lacrosse season, it prompted a deluge of honors for his lifetime of steadfast service. He received the highly distinguished Lifetime Membership Award from the College Sports Information Directors of America. In addition, the University of Virginia created a lacrosse scholarship in his name and honored him with the Bus Male Service Award in May of ’99. This award recognizes a person’s untiring and devoted service to UVa athletics. He also won the Bus Male Service Award in 1982, making him the only two-time winner of the award, which has been given annually since 1978-1979.
In addition to the accolades, the Bend, Ore., native also received recognition at several lacrosse games, including the Johns Hopkins game, the final Virginia home game, the ACC Championship game and the NCAA Championship. At the Johns Hopkins game in March, he was honored before the match not only for his commitment to lacrosse but also for his contributions to the school. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Hopkins in 1966 and received the Barton Cup as the most outstanding student in his class. Earning three letters at Johns Hopkins as manager and statistician with the football, basketball and lacrosse teams, Smith also shared the H Club Cup for contributing the most to athletics.
At each pregame ceremony, the players from both teams, usually too focused on the upcoming match to scarcely acknowledge the national anthem, paused and gave Smith a long ovation. As the crowd shuffled to their seats, people stopped whatever they were doing, turned toward the field, and showed their appreciation for a man everyone in the tightly-knit lacrosse world knows and respects. Yet, all those ovations probably weren’ t long enough.
If it were a truly fitting show of gratitude for Smith’ s unwavering devotion to the sport of lacrosse and the University, the cheering and applause would still be going and not stop for a long, long time.