Finis Dean Smith (born January 15, 1932) is a former American track and field athlete and stuntman, winner of gold medal in 4x100 m relay at the 1952 Summer Olympics.
Born in Breckenridge, Texas, Smith won the Amateur Athletic Union championships in 100 m in 1952. At the Helsinki Olympics, he was fourth in the 100 m and ran the leadoff leg for American gold medal winning 4x100 m relay team.
After graduating from University of Texas at Austin, Smith played professional football for the Los Angeles Rams and the Pittsburgh Steelers but never played in a regular season game. After his sports career, Smith performed as a professional rodeo cowboy and stuntman in various Western movies as The Alamo, The Comancheros, How The West Was Won, McLintock!, Rio Conchos, Big Jake, and El Dorado. He also appeared in such Western TV shows as Tales of Wells Fargo, Maverick, Gunsmoke, Lawman, Have Gun Will Travel, The Iron Horse and Walker, Texas Ranger.
In 2006 he was inducted in to the Texas Rodeo Cowboy Hall of Fame
Dean Smith is a member of the Stuntman's Hall of Fame. In 1997 he was named "All American Cowboy" and in 1998 he received a Golden Boot Award. In 2007 he received the Silver Spur award for his contribution as a stuntman (one of the best) in the film business.
Famous quotes containing the words dean and/or smith:
“President Lowell of Harvard appealed to students ‘to prepare themselves for such services as the Governor may call upon them to render.’ Dean Greenough organized an ‘emergency committee,’ and Coach Fisher was reported by the press as having declared, ‘To hell with football if men are needed.’”
—For the State of Massachusetts, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“The moment the very name of Ireland is mentioned, the English seem to bid adieu to common feeling, common prudence, and common sense, and to act with the barbarity of tyrants, and the fatuity of idiots.”
—Sydney Smith (1771–1845)