Robert Smith (baseball) - Baseball Career

Baseball Career

Smith graduated from Greenville College in Greenville, Illinois in 1957 and went to work at the college a few years after graduation as a physical education instructor and baseball coach, in 1961.

Smith began his work with the Olympics when he began to work on the United States Olympic Committee in 1977.

Smith was elected President of the United States Baseball Federation in 1980 (until 1989) and then quickly ascended to the presidency of the International Baseball Federation/International Baseball Association (IBA) the following year at the Baseball World Cup held in Japan. At the IBA's Congress in 1988, held in conjunction with the Nicaragua Baseball World Cup, Smith was re-elected as President, and he held the office until 1993. That year, he was succeeded by Aldo Notari of Italy.

During Dr. Smith's time as international leader of amateur baseball, he coordinated 26 world baseball tournaments, continued to serve on the United States Olympic Committee in varying capacities until 1990, and directed the baseball competitions at the Olympic Games in 1984 in Los Angeles, 1988 in Seoul, and 1992 in Barcelona.

Smith is often acknowledged as being responsible for baseball becoming an official Olympic sport. Baseball was allowed as a demonstration sport at the 1984 Los Angeles Games and Smith hoped that it would be played for medals in 1988 in Seoul. He and baseball's supporters in the effort did not make that goal, but nevertheless Smith's time as president was unique in that he saw the end to decades of work by baseball enthusiasts when the International Olympic Committee decided to add baseball as an official sport of the Games for 1992. He oversaw the winning of the first-ever gold medal for baseball, won by Cuba in Barcelona in 1992. The International Olympic Committee voted in 2006 to drop baseball and softball in the Olympics, beginning with the 2012 Games in London.