A central defender for most of his career, Smith's most memorable moment for the club probably came when he scored Liverpool's second goal in the 1977 European Cup Final against Borussia Mönchengladbach.
[3] Brought up a Catholic, he stopped attending church after witnessing the local priest stagger out of the house drunk after he came to the family home to offer his condolences.
[10] He scored his first goal for Liverpool in his second match, playing at inside-left in a 3–2 defeat to Blackburn Rovers at Ewood Park on 29 August 1964.
[14] He also played in every game of Liverpool's FA Cup run as they beat West Bromwich Albion, Stockport County (after a replay), Bolton Wanderers, Leicester City (after a replay), and Chelsea to reach the 1965 FA Cup Final against Leeds United at Wembley Stadium; Liverpool won the game 2–1 to lift the trophy for the first time in the club's history.
[16] Liverpool then recovered from a loss and a defeat to Sheffield United in the opening two games of the 1965–66 season to go on a strong run of form that included convincing victories over West Ham United (5–1), Merseyside derby rivals Everton (5–0), Nottingham Forest (4–0), Northampton Town (5–0), and Blackburn Rovers (5–2); Smith managed to score against both Everton and Blackburn.
[20] Smith played in the 1966 FA Charity Shield against Everton at Goodison Park, helping his side to a clean sheet and a 1–0 victory.
[25] Smith was given the honour of club captaincy and led the team to the 1971 FA Cup final, which Liverpool lost to Arsenal 2–1 after extra time.
[26][27][28] In November 1973,[29] after Smith complained to Shankly at being left out of the team for a game, he had the big disappointment of losing the captaincy to Emlyn Hughes.
[32] Hughes went on to lift the FA Cup as captain in 1974 after Liverpool comprehensively beat Newcastle United 3–0 in one of the most one-sided of Wembley finals.
[33] As Smith's twilight years approached, he made fewer appearances and with the emergence of youngsters Phil Thompson and Phil Neal as central defender and full back respectively, though he still played an important role as Liverpool managed another League and UEFA Cup double in 1976, when he appeared 24 times in the league and played a left-back role in both legs of the UEFA final.
Smith spent the close season in the summer of 1976 in the United States, playing 17 games on loan as a defender for the Tampa Bay Rowdies,[34] where he continued his trademark toughness and earned the nickname, "The Tank".
"[36] Smith decided to delay his retirement and played a further season for Liverpool but missed the successful retention of the European Cup after he dropped a pickaxe on his foot, breaking his toe.
The Swans were being managed by his former Liverpool teammate John Toshack at the time and Smith helped Swansea to promotion from the Third Division.
[43] That said, he certainly had the respect of his peers, with fellow professional Jack Charlton once saying "Tommy Smith was easily the hardest player I faced.
[48] Smith was still held in high regard amongst Liverpool fans long after his retirement, as he was voted into 25th place in the official club website poll "100 Players Who Shook The Kop".
[52] In his later years, Smith had a hip replacement operation (both knees and an elbow were also made of plastic) and also began to suffer from arthritis to the extent that he could not work and often needed a wheelchair or walking stick and had to claim incapacity benefit.
Smith had his benefit payments stopped for a short time after he managed to take a penalty on the Wembley pitch at half-time during the 1996 FA Cup Final between Liverpool and Manchester United; he stated that "I couldn't believe they would do that, I was getting money for charity.
[54] Tommy Smith died, at the age of 74, in his sleep at 4.30pm on 12 April 2019 at Green Heyes nursing home in Crosby after "growing increasingly frail and suffering from a variety of ailments over the last three months", according to his daughter.