[12][13][14] The Vandals had won the first Big Sky baseball title in 1964 and again in 1966, when they were invited to the NCAA postseason for the first time and advanced to the regional finals.
[17] The 1969 team won another Big Sky title and advanced to the regional finals, falling to eventual national champion Arizona State.
[23][24][25] Citing budget constraints in 1980, Idaho (and Boise State) dropped the sport,[26] and Smith continued in the UI athletic department for the next seven years as equipment manager.
[2][3] When John L. Smith (b.1948) arrived on campus as an assistant football coach in 1982, both began using their middle initial to avoid confusion.
Retired for over a decade, Smith contracted pneumonia and died from complications at age 73 at Sacred Heart Hospital in Spokane;[5] he was buried at the city cemetery in Moscow, Idaho.