Smith is best remembered as a college football left end who appeared with the UCLA Bruins in a 1943 Rose Bowl loss to the University of Georgia.

During World War II Smith served as a lieutenant in the United States Army, fighting on the European front, where he was severely wounded at the Battle of the Bulge.

[2] As was the case for all American football players in the era before free substitution, Smith played on both the offensive and defensive sides of the ball.

Smith's 1940 season was cut short by injury, however, when he suffered a broken leg in the third quarter of a November 23 drubbing at the hands of the Washington Huskies.

[3] Despite the abrupt and painful end to his 1940 season, Smith's play still merited his inclusion by sportswriters as a second-team member of the 1940 Associated Press All-Pacific Coast Football Team.

[6] Smith's season ultimately failed to live up to high preseason hopes, however, and he was relegated to honorable mention status on the 1941 All-Pacific Coast Football Teams by sports editors associated with United Press International publications.

Following graduation at UCLA in 1943, Smith was enlisted in the United States Army and shipped out to armored command officer candidates' school at Fort Knox, Kentucky.