He attended Augusta High School where he played football under coach Curtis King from 1950 to 1952.

[5][6][3] Wyatt would leave Arkansas after the 1954 season to coach his alma mater Tennessee, and was replaced by Jack Mitchell.

[7] An additional highlight of Smith's time at Arkansas was that the Razorbacks defeated the Texas Longhorns three years in a row, in 1954 (20-7),[8] 1955 (27-20),[9] and 1956 (32-14).

[4] Smith began his NFL career in 1957, as the third round draft pick for the Los Angeles Rams.

[5] Smith's boxing skills also came into play on and off the field, including a legendary post-game fight with Philadelphia Eagles lineman Lum Snyder that went on for hours.

[3][5] During his professional football career, Smith had worked in the off-season in Baltimore as a broker for the investment banking firm Alex Brown & Sons, from 1965 to 1970.

In 1970, he worked for White, Weld in Texas, and in 1978 he became head of Alex Brown's office in Dallas.

He later joined Stephens, Inc., another investment firm (headquartered in Arkansas), retiring as a vice-president in 1996, due to health problems.

Reflecting his father's professional business career, Billy Ray Jr. was a dean's list student and graduated with a degree in finance.